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TITI LUCRETI CARI

DE RERUM NATURA
LIBER V.

Sonlion: C. J. CLAY axd SOXS,

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS ^VAREHOUSE,

AVE MARIA LAKE.

©lasgotD: 263, ARGYLE STREET.

Htmis- F. A. BROCKHAUS.

j^eiu gork: MACMILLAX AND CO.

JSomfaao: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.

ffl

X\\X %x%m Senes.

T. LUCRETI CARI

DE RERUM NATURA,

LIBER QUliiTUS

EDITED
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

J. D. DUFF, M.A.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

STEREOTYPED EDITION.

CAMBRIDGE:

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

1896

\_All Rights reser7jed.'\

First Edition,
Reprinted \i

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION ix

ANALYSIS xxix

TEXT I

NOTES 47

INDEX Il6

PREFACE.

The fifth book of Lucretius contains some of his
finest work and also, being less technical and dry than
any of the other books, is best suited to serve as an
introduction to the study of the De Rerinn Natiira. This
edition has been prepared with that object in view : it aims
both at explaining this one book in detail for beginners and
at smoothing the way to the comprehension of other and
more difficult parts of the poem.

My obligations are very great, in all parts of my book,
to Munro's famous edition. In the Introduction, I have
also made considerable use of Professor Sellar's sympathetic
and felicitous criticism in his two volumes on the Roman
poets ; and much of my fourth section is abridged from
Zeller. For the astronomical section I have to thank the
dexterity and kindness of Mr H. L. Callendar, Fellow of
Trinity College. It may be worth saying here that the
astronomical theories of Lucretius are simple enough, so
long as they are purely fanciful, and difficult only when they
approximate to the truth. Consequently the information
here given is only a simplification of what may be found in
the ordinary astronomical text-books.

viii PREFACE.

Thc text is in the main that of Munro's last edition ; but
I have admitted a few conjectures of Madvig and more
recent writers. AU such deviations from Munro's text are
indicated.

In wTiting the notes I have constantly consulted Munro's
commentary, and I have also kept before me the editions of
Professor Kelsey (Boston 1884) and of MM. Benoist and
Lantoine (Paris 1884), both of which are based on Munro
but contain some original matter. But, owing to the class of
students whom I had in view, it was impossible for me to
foUow any of these closely ; and the notes are for the most
part of my own writing. Finally I have to thank Dr J. P.
Postgate, Fellow of Trinity College, who most kindly
offered to read over the notes and made many suggestive
criticisms.

J. D. DUFF.

Trinity College, Cambridge,
Daanber, 18S8.

INTRODUCTION.

I. LlFE OF LUCRETIUS.

Nec vixit via/e qui natus moric7isque fefellit.

Horace Ep. i 17 10.

The chronicle of Hieronymus or St Jerome, compiled about
400 A. D., has a record to the following effect : 'the poet Titus
Lucretius Carus was born in 94 B. C. ; he lost his reason in
consequence of drinking a love-philtre and died by his own
hand in his forty-fourth year, after composing in his lucid
intervals several books which Cicero afterwards corrected.' The
date of his death would thus be 50 B.c. But Donatus, who is
more generally foUowed, in his life of Virgil mentions as a
remarkable coincidence that Lucretius died (nothing is said of
madness or suicide) on October i^th, 55 B.c, the day on which
Virgil, being just fifteen, assumed the toga virilis.

We may then assume with fair probability that Lucretius
was born in 99 B. C, and died in the autumn of 55. The other
statements made by St Jerome are even more doubtful than his
chronology. For first, with regard to the alleged madness and
suicide, it is very strange that such a tragical ending of a great
genius is nowhere mentioned by any subsequent Latin vvriter.
And on the other hand the story was just such a pious fiction
as vvas likely to be invented by a posterity shocked by the
heterodoxy of Lucretius. It is vvorth noticing that a similar
end was invented for Lucian, another Epicurean heretic : he is
said by Suidas to have been torn to pieces by dogs. Again it
seems highly improbable that the poem was written in the lucid
intervals of a madman : the argument is severely logical, the
arrangement masterly, in those parts of the poem vvhich are not

X INTRODUCTION.

obviously unfinished. The last statement of the chionicle, that
Cicero conected the books, implies one fact which is certainly
true, that Lucretius left his poem unfinished and that it was
given to the world after his death by some other hand. But we
do not know what kind or amount of 'correction' the editor
supplied, or even which Cicero was the editor, Marcus TuUius
or his brother Quintus. Lucretius is mentioned once by the
orator in a letteri written from Rome to his brother Quintus, in
January, 54 B. C, four months after the poet's death ; but
unfortunately the text of the passage is corrupt and throws no
light on either of these questions ; it is impossible even to gather
how far the writer admired the poem, and on what grounds.

These scanty and unsatisfactory details are all we are told
by the writers of antiquity about the personal history of
Lucretius. He is mentioned occasionally by both poets and
prose-writers, sometimes quoted and sometimes criticised ; but
no particulars of his Hfe or death are anywhere else recorded.
It is possible to add a very httle to this meagre account from
the internal evidence of his poem, though some of his editors
have pushed conjecture far beyond reasonable iimits.

In the first place it is tolerably certain that he was a Roman
of good family and fortune. His gentile name is that of a very
old patrician house ; and the terms of absolute equality in which
he addresses Memmius, a very distinguished figure at Rome in
those days, point to the same conclusion. A modern writer has
called Lucretius 'the aristocrat with a missionjf; and it is true
that the whole tone of his poem is that of a man in easy
circumstances and famihar with the luxury of which he disap-
proves.

It is still more certain that his hfe was that of a recluse.
PoUtical activity was always distasteful to the Epicureans ; and
at Rome just at this time civil war was impending, and the
poHtical out-look was very dark. Lucretius is never more
inspired than when he is denouncing ambition. Nor again
could the immense hterary activity of the time bring him into

> ad O. fr. ii ir. - F. \V. H. Myers, Classical Kssays, p. 126.

INTR OD UCTION. xi

contact with other men, as the literature he loved belonged
entirely to the past. He was before all things a student. Much
of his time must have been spent in study of the Greek philo-
sophers and poets : he tells us himself that the absorbing
pursuit of his hfe, which he carried on through 'the clear
nights' and which haunted him even in sleep^, was the study
of the philosophers and the exposition in his poem of their
'glorious discoveries.' According to tradition, his master Epi-
curus himself left three hundred rolls, 'golden words,' says
Lucretius, 'on which I feed hke a bee among the flowers^.' And
besides Epicurus there are many other abstruse and voluminous
writers whose authority he acknowledges or whose dogmas he
refutes ; Empedocles and Democritus are conspicuous among
the first, Herachtus and Anaxagoras among the second. He
also translates from or imitates the foUowing Greek authors :
Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, Thucydides, Hippocrates, and per-
haps Aristophanes and Plato. Among Latin writers, we can
trace imitation of Ennius and his nephew Pacuvius, the chief
epic poet and the chief tragedian of early Latin hterature.

Finally, from the truth and evident pleasure with which he
describes all manner of natural objects and illustrates his
arguments by them, we may infer that his hfe was spent for the
most part in the country. We may think of Lucretius in some
quiet place, away from *the smoke and wealth and noise of
Rome'; we may fancy him watching the clouds on the hills or
the waves on the shore with the delight of a poet and the
keen interest of a philosopher, or poring over the scrolls of
Epicurus, and studying how he might best transfer their
precious contents to his own immortal poem.

n. POEM OF LUCRETIUS.
Docti furor arduus Lucreti.

Statius Silv. ii 7 76.

The De Reriini Natura is a didacjic poem : it professes to
expound systematically a particular subject. The Works and

^ i 142; 1^969. 2 iii^_,2.

xii INTRODUCTION.

Days of Hesiod, the Georgics of Virgil, the Essay on Man of
Pope, all belong to this class of poetry. The subject which the
poem of Lucretius is intended to explain is the philosophical
system of Epicurus or part of it. A short account is given
below of such Epicurean doctrines as are explained or alluded
to in the fifth book of Lucretius.

The form and title of the poem are derived from Empedocles
of Agrigentum, who lived in the fifth century B. C. and wrote a
famous treatise in hexameter verse, 'Trepl (f)iia(u>s' of which
some fragments are extant. The poem is dedicated to Gaius
Memmius, prominent as an orator and statesman of the sena-
torial party, but a worthless and unprincipled man ; why
Lucretius thought him worthy of this distinction, we cannot
tell. No other contemporary is mentioned in the poem, though
some editors have thought they could trace allusions to Clodius
and to Caesar.

The first two books are devoted to a very full account of
atoms and void, these being, according to Democritus and
Epicurus, the two great factors of the universe ; here too the
rival systems of other philosophers are stated and refuted.
There is less evidence of incompleteness in these books than in
the others. The third book is mainly taken up in proving that
the soul is a material part of man, made up of atoms as the
body is, and dying with the body. This theory is of the highest
importance in the eyes of Lucretius and is therefore proved at
great length. The fourth book explains the Epicurean theory
of sight and the other senses ; the fifth gives an account of the
origin of the world, of hfe, and of human society ; of this book
a fuller analysis is given below. The last book is miscellaneous
in its contents. It begins by discussing the nature of thunder
and Hghtning and other celestial phenomena ; it then deals with
various natural curiosities, such as magnetic attraction, and
ends with a description, taken from Thucydides, of the plague
of Athens. It is obviously more confused and less complete
than any of the other books.

Thus it will be seen that Lucretius begins by laying down
ihe first principles of the atomic philosophy, and then discusses

INTR OD UCTION. xiii

in his last four books some special applications of that doctrine,
which formed part of the system of Epicurus. The aim of the
poet throughout is not sp much purely scientific as practical and
raoral. His main object, as he tells U3 again and again, is to
free men's minds from the yoke of superstitious fears by dis-
playing to them the aspect and the laws of nature ; and this is
why he argues with such passionate earnestness against the
immortality of the soul and tlie interference of the gods in
human affairs. Thus the purpose of the fifth book is to show
that the world and all that it contains were not created by
divine power, and that all progress is the result of natural
experience, not of divine guidance. And on the whole it
appears that Lucretius lived long enough to complete in out-
line the whole task he had set before himself, though the latter
part of the poem is far from complete in artistic finish and
arrangement of materials.

With regard to the diction and metre of the poem, Lucretius
deliberately adopted a style which must have seemed archaic to
his contemporaries. This may be seen by comparing the De
Rerum Natura with the Peleus and Thetis of CatuUus, which
was certainly written at nearly the same time. Just as Greek
epic verse continued to the end to imitate the forms and
vocabulary of Homer, so Lucretius thought fit to take for his
model the Annales of Ennius, the only great epic which the
language possessed, though two centuries had passed since it
was written. At the beginning of his own poem he makes
honourable mention of Ennius^, and constantly imitates even the
few hundred lines of fragments which we possess. It is pro-
bable too that his archaism was intended as a protest against
the tendency of contemporary Latin literature. For just at this
time there was great literary activity among the Romans.
Any educated man could, as Mommsen says, turn off his five
hundred hexameters at a sitting ; Quintus Cicero wrote four
tragedies in a fortnight to beguile the dulness of winter-quarters
in GauL But all these poems were worthless imitations of bad
models, — of Callimachus and the other learned poets of Alex-
^ i 117.
D. 2

xi V INTR OD UCTION.

andria. The pure taste of Lucretius revolted from the pre-
dominant fashion and attached itself to Ennius, and, through
Ennius, to the classical Greek literature. Thus his philosophi-
cal creed and his literary taste alike led him to discard all
such antiquarian and mythological lore as we see in the Coma
Betrnices of Catullus, translated from Callimachus. The myth-
ology he resolutely refused to bcHeve, and the only learning he
valued was that which had power to purify the hearts of men
and make their hves happy.

His archaism is seen both in the language and in the style.
He uses many old words and forms, from which Virgil selects
with discrimination ; and he also coins many new words which
no writer used after him. He prefers to use a significant Greek
word in place of a feeble or obscure Latin equivalent. He is
fond of the artifices of alhteration and assonance, which seem
so congenial to early Latin and occur so constantly in Ennius
and still more in Plautus ; here again Virgil decidedly restricts
the practice of his predecessors. His senteBeer are often exces-
sively long and loosely constructed ; he is indifferent to ambi-
guities which his Augustan successors would not have tolerated ;
and his order of words is often perplexing to those who are not
famihar with his style. Again his metre, though more refined
than that of Ennius, itself is wanting in harmony and especially
in variety, when compared with the perfect rhythm of Virgil.

The difficulty of Lucretius, which even the ancients felt',
is partly due to his fondness for archaism, but also to the
inadequacy of the language as an instrument for expressing
abstruse thought. Ennius had been able with rude vigour to
depict the early history of Rome, to lay down a model of heroic
verse for his successors, and to bequeath them a considerable
vocabulary. But the language was still, as Lucretius thrice
over complains^, a very imperfect vehicle for the discussion of
political, moral, and metaphysical ideas. The great measure of
success which he attains must have been the result of immense
labour.

1 Quintil. Inst. x i 87. = i 136, i 830, iii 258.

INTRODUCTTON. xv

Many have thought ihat Lucretius vvas singularly unfortunate
in his choice of a subject. A great poet has said that poetry
should be simple, sensuous, impassioned ; and it would be
difficult for any poem, consisting mainly of the exposition of a
philosophical system, to satisfy these conditions. This is
especially true of the Epicurean philosophy, which, at least on its
metaphysical side, is of all systems the least lofty and the least
profound.

Yet, in spite of his unattractive subject, his archaism, and his
monotonous verse, the poem of Lucretius is immortal. The
greatness is in the man rather than in the theme. In the
doctrine of atoms there is much that is wonderful and striking
to the imagination ; but after all it is the personahty and poetic
power of Lucretius that make his work a possession for ever —
his noble enthusiasm, his profound pathos, his intellectual
seriousness, and his descriptive genius. In our own age his
poem excites peculiar interest, because of its scientific spirit, and
because it discusses the very same problems of rehgion, science,
and anthropology which we are engaged in discussing over
again. To his great qualities there is no lack of testimony.
Few have known ancient and modern literature as Macaulay
did ; and he says of Lucretius : ' In energy, perspicuity, variety
of illustration, knowledge of life and manners, talent for descrip-
tion, sense of the beauty of the external world, and elevation
and dignity of moral feeling, Lucretius had hardly ever an
equaU.' Munro too, as competent a judge as any man who ever
lived, sums up his opinion thus : * It would hardly perhaps do
violence to the taste of the present age to call Lucretius the
greatest of extant Latin poets. Like the rest of his countrymen,
he is not a great creative genius ; we find in him many echoes
even of the scanty fragments which we yet possess of the old
tragic and epic poets, Accius, Pacuvius, and, above all, Ennius.
He owes still more to the Greeks, especially Empedocles, so far
as regards the form of his poem....From the splendid eulogies
which in his first book he passes on Ennius and Empedocles,
we may feel sure that he did not wish to conceal his obligations,
^ Life, vol. I p. 468.

2 — 2

xvi INTRODUCTTON.

but, like other Latin poets, thought he had a right to make
what use he pleased of his Greek and Roman predecessors.
And he has merits of his own unsurpassed in the whole compass
of Latin poetry. It has often struck me that his genius is akin
to that of Milton. He displays a wonderful depth and fervour
of thought, expresscd in language of singular force and beauty ;
an admirable faculty of clear and vigorous and well-sustained
philosophical reasoning ; and a style equal in its purity and
correctness to that of Terence, Caesar or Cicero, and superior
to that of any writer of the Augustan age^'

in. LUCRETIUS AND VlRGIL.

Non verba anton sola sed vcrsns prope totos et locos quoqiie
Lucreti pliirimos sectatum esse Vergilium videmus.

Aulus Gellius i 21 7.
When the poem of Lucretius was published, Virgil was
fifteen years of age. ' At such an age therefore the style and
manner of Lucretius were able to impress themselves fully on
the younger poet's susceptible mind ; and perhaps the highest
eulogy which has ever been passed on the former is that con-
stant imitation of his language and thought which pervades
VirgiFs works from one end to the otherV It may be added
that this influence was at its height at the time when the
Georgics, and especially the second, were written.

Virgil never mentions Lucretius directly ; but this is not
surprising when we remember that he does not mention
Theocritus once in the Eclogues, nor Hesiod by name in the
Georgics, nor Homer at all in the Aeneid. There is hovvever
one passage which is unmistakably intended to carry an allusion
to Lucretius. The lines are as follows :

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Atque metus omnes et incxorabile fatum
Subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.

' Journal of Sacred and Classical Philoloc;;y i p. 21.
2 Munro, II p. 19.

INTR OD UCTIOM xvii

Fortunatus et ille, deos qui novit agrestes,
Panaque Silvanumque senem Nymphasque sorores^
It is evident that in these and the preceding lines Virgil is
instituting a comparison, to his own disadvantage, between
Lucretius, who had ventured to explain the laws of nature, and
himself, who was content with loving and describing her
external aspects. We may compare the similar contrast drawn
by Matthew Arnold between Goethe and Wordsworth, in which
VirgiPs words are thus applied to Goethe :

And he was happy, if to know

Causes of things, and far below

His feet to see the lurid flow

Of terror, and insane distress,

And headlong fate, be happiness.

Virgil was a most modest man and no doubt sincerely

beheved that Lucretius was a greater genius than himself. But

if he did so, he stood almost alone among his countrjTnen. The

Arina virumqne, as the Roman poets love to call the Aeneid^,

entirely echpsed the Aeneadum genetrix with the Roman

pubhc, if indeed the latter ever had any vogue at all ; and even

the few, who ventured to disparage VirgiP, do not seem to have

set up Lucretius as a rival object of admiration. It was reserved

for our own century to extol the earher poet at the expense of

the later. Johnson maintained with accustomed vigour against

Burke the superiority of Homer to Virgil ; but if any rash

member of the Club had substituted Lucretius for Homer, it is

probable that Johnson and Burke would have made common

cause against so novel a paradox. During the present century,

however, the comparison has often been made ; and the verdict

of the learned has gone, on the whole, in favour of Lucretius.

This is not the place to enter on a discussion of such wide range

and doubtful value ; but, if it be admitted that a nation is com-

petent to judge its own literature, it should also be remembered

^ Georg. ii 490 — 494.

2 Ov. Trist. ii 534, Mart. viii 56 19.

^ Ov. Remed. 367 ; Suet. Gaius 34.

xviii INTRODUCTION.

that the Romans werc practically unanimous in ranking Virgil as
the peer of Homer and far above all other Latin poets ^ It is
very improbable that they would have allowed even the proximi
honores to Lucretius. We are not entillcd to settle such a
question absolutcly, by our own standards and our own prefer-
ences ; how should we feel oursclves, if a highly educated
Hindoo asked us to take his word for it, that Marlowe was
a greater poet than Shakespcare, or Wordsworth than
Milton?

It is interesting to notice that the relation bctween the two
poets is by no means one of unmixed sympathy. When we
consider the religious and almost mystical tempcrament of
Virgil, his respect for tradition, and the difference of his
political and social surroundings, we cannot wonder that he is
repellcd as well as attracted by the genius for which he expresscs
an almost dcspairing admiration. 'Virgil is no meredisciple of
Lucretius, eithcr as regards his philosophy or his art. Though
his imagination pays homage to that of thc older poct ; though
hc acknowledges his contemplative elevation ; though he has a
strong affinity with the deep humanity of his nature ; yet in his
profoundcst convictions and aspirations he proclaims his revolt
from him^.'

It will be observed that in many of the passages of Virgil
where we find an ccho of Lucretius, thc sense is quite different
though the words are like or evcn identical. This is most
easily accounted for, by supposing that his mind was so saturated
with the writings of his predecessor, that he reproduced the
cadences and even words without being conscious of it. An
example may be taken from another pair of Latin pocts. Evcry
reader of Martial is struck by the number of allusions to
Catullus and imitations of him. But thcre are also resemblances
of a subtlcr kind. For instance, CatuIIus in one of his poems
reproaches Calvus for sending him a present of some bad poetry,
and vows to take revenge by sending him a similar present in
return :

^ Quintil. Inst. xi 85- '^' Sellar, Virgil p. 197.

INTRODUCTION. xix

nam, si luxerit, ad librariorum

curram scrmia.

1

Now Martial, addressing his fourth book, advises it to gain
the approval of ApoUinaris, and tells it, if condemned, to be
ofif to the trunk-makers' :

si damnaverit, ad salariorum
curras scrinia protinus hcebit^.

The words are almost exactly those of Catullus ; the mean-
ing is entirely dififerent. There can be no stronger proof of
ingrained famiharity than such unconscious imitation.

The following is a list of the passages in the Eclogues and
Georgics which are most obviously imitated from the fifth book
of Lucretius.

Lucr. V 8 deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte IMemmi.

Ecl. V 64 deus, deus ille, Menalca.

Lucr. V 30 equi spirantes naribus ignem.

Georg. ii 140 tauri spirantes naribus ignem.

Lucr. V 33 asper, acerba tuens.

Georg. iii 149 asper, acerba sonans.

Lucr. V 97 nec me animi fallit quam res nova miraque

menti
accidat...

et quam difficile id mihi sit pervincere
dictis.
Georg. iii 289 nec sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere
magnum
quam sit...

Lucr. V 202 possedere, tenent rupes vastaeque paludes.

Georg. ii 144 implevere, tenent oleae armentaque laeta.

Lucr. V 207 ni vis humana resistat,

vitai causa vahdo consueta bidenti

^ xiv 17. ^ iv 86 9.

INTROD UCTION.

ingemere, et terram pressis proscindere

aratris.

ni vis humana quotannis...
depresso incipiat iam tum mihi taurus

aratro
ingemere.
vaJidis terram proscinde iuvencis.

pulveris exhalat nebulam nubesque volan-

tes.
tenuem exhalat nebulam fumosque volu-

cres.

camposque natantes.
campique natantes.

solis item quoque defectus lunaeque late-

bras.
defectus solis varios lunaeque labores.

novo fetu quid primum in luminis oras
tollere et incertis crerint committere ventis.
sponte sua quae se tollunt in luminis

oras.
inque novos soles audent se gramina tuto
credere.

arboribusque datumst variis exinde pcr

auras
crescendi magnum inmissis certamen ha-

benis.

Georg. ii 363 dum se laetus ad auras

palmes agit laxis per purum inmissus
habenis.

Lucr. v 840 orba pedum partim.

Georg. iv 310 trunca pedum primo.

Lucr. V 862 genus acre leonum.

Georg. iii 264 genus acre luporum.

Georg.

i 198

45

ii237

Lucr. V

253

Georg.

ii 217

Lucr. V

488

Georg.

iii 198

Lucr. V

■751

Georg.

ii478

Lucr. V

• 780

Georg.

ii47

332

Lucr. \

^786

TNTRODUCTION. xxi

Lucr. V 925 at genus humanum multo fuit illud in

agris
durius, ut decuit, tellus quod dura creasset.
Georg. i 62 Deucalion vacuum lapides iactavit in or-

bem,
unde homines nati, durum genus.

Lucr. V 937 quod sol atque imbres dederant, quod

terra crearat
sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora do-
num.
Georg. ii 500 quos rami fructus, quos ipsa volentia rura
sponte tulere sua, carpsit.

Lucr. V 944 miseris mortalibus.

Georg. iii 66 miseris mortalibus.

Lucr. V 1250 nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier

ortum
quam saepire plagis saltum canibusque
ciere.
Georg. i 139 tum laqueis captare feras et fallere visco

inventum, et magnos canibus circumdare
saltus.

Lucr. V 1255 manabat venis ferventibus in loca terrae

concava conveniens argenti rivus et auri.

Georg. ii 165 haec eadem argenti rivos aerisque metalla
ostendit venis atque auro plurima fluxit.

Lucr. v 1368 fructusque feros mansuescere terram

cernebant indulgendo blandeque colendo.
Georg. ii 36 fructusque feros mollite colendo.

Lucr. V 1387 per loca pastorum deserta atque otia dia.

Georg. iii 476 desertaque regna

pastorum, et longe saltus lateque vacantes.

Lucr. V 1393 propter aquae rivum.

Ecl. viii 87 propter aquae rivum.

xxii INTRODUCTION.

Lucr. V 1395 praesertim cum tempestas ridebat...

Georg. ii 310 praesertim si tempestas a vertice silvis
incubuit.

IV. SOME DOCTRINES OF EPICURUS.

Philosophus nobilis, a quo non solum Graecia et Italia sed etiam

omtiis barbaria commota est.

Cicero De Fin. ii 49.
Epicurus was born at Samos in 342 B. C. He went to
Athens vvhen he was thirty-five years old and there founded a
school of his own, in which he taught until his death in 270 B. C.
He was almost worshipped by his disciples and was by all
accounts a most amiable and excellent man, and not at all an
Epicurean in our sense of the term. Before 200 B.C. his system
had found many supporters at Rome, though it was not so
congenial to the gravitas of the Roman character as the rival
system of the Stoics. The doctrines of Epicurus, which are
explained or mentioned by Lucretius in his fifth book, must be
briefly noticed here. These are,

(i) the theory of atoms and void ;

(2) the nature of the soul ;

(3) the nature of knowledge ;

(4) the existence and nature of the gods;

(5) the theory of celestial phenomena.

(i) Atoms and Void. Epicurus adopted tn its entirety
the atomic theory of Democritus, born in 460 B. c. According
to this theory the whole universe consists of two things, body
(aafjia, corpus), and void (t6 k(vov, inane). The existence of
body or matter is proved by the evidence of our senses, the
existence of void partly by the possibility of motion, as bodies
could not move if there were no void or empty space for them
to move in, and partly by the unequal weight of bodies equal in
bulk : a ball of lead is heavier than a ball of wool only because
it contains less void. All body, which we may call matter, is
composed of atoms, to which Lucretius gives the names prin-
cipia, primordia rerum, corpora matcriae. These atoms differ

INTRODUCTION. xxiii

in size, shape, and weight, and are unlimited in number. They
have existed from everlasting and can neVer be spUt up or
destroyed in any way, because they are solid and indivisible,
containing no void. They are in constant motion, being
impelled downwards by their own weight and sideways by the
blows of other atoms ; they are so small that our sight cannot
perceive them. Void also is unlimited in extent; and so the
universe, which is made up of these two constituents, is also
unlimited. A finite world such as ours, including earth, sea,
and sky, is formed whenever a concourse of atoms, after many
fruitless experiments, have assumed positions which enable
them to move for a time without separating from one another.
But a world so formed, as it had a beginning, will also have
an end ; and the liberated atoms will then continue their race
through void and take part in future combinations. All these
operations are the result of chance, not of design.

It was certainly a happy intuition that induced Epicurus,
indifferent as he was to science in general, to adopt this scien-
tific theory. His contemporaries thought it ridiculous, but
modern science has accepted it as true in the main. .*The
propositions fn which Lucretius has stated his atomic theory
anticipate some recent discoveries in both chemistry and physics
in a most marvellous way. Science has now proved that his
propositions as to the constitution of matter are either certainly
true, or else foreshadow the truth^'

(2) The Soul. The psychology of Epicurus is strictly
materialistic, and admits no difference between mind and
matter. Just as the body is made up of atoms, so is the soul
or vital principle {^vxr\., anhna), and the mind or rational
principle {\6yos, anitnus). The only difference is that the soul
and mind consist of the smallest and lightest atoms; this is
proved by the speed of thought and by the fact that the body,
when life has ceased, is not diminished in size and weight.
The vital principle is diffused over the whole body ; the rational
principle has its seat in the breast. The soul, under which
both anima and animus may be included, cannot exist apart

^ Masson, Atomic Theory of Lucretius, p. i.

xxiv INTRODUCTION.

from the body; it was born together with it and will die with it.
Death therefore is nothing to us, as sensation cannot survive
for a moment the separation of body and soul.

Lucretius brings forward no less than twenty-seven arguments
against the immortality of the soul. He is anxious to leave no
doubt on the point, as he beUeves that the unhappiness of men
is mainly due to their fear of punishment in a future life.

(3) Perceptions and Conceptions. AU knowledge,
according to Epicurus, depends on the senses. Their evidence
is unimpeachable : when we get a wrong impression of some
object we see, the blame rests, not with our sensation, but with
our judgment of the sensation, i.e. with the mind, not with the
eyes. By a repetition of the same perception there arises a
conception or notion (TrpoXjj^Z/^ty), which is called by Lucretius
notities, and more accurately by Cicero anticipatio. This notion
is a general picture, retained in the mind, of what has been
perceived. The origin of perceptions is explained in the
following way. Exceedingly fine films (tiSwXa, simulacra) are
constantly being discharged from the surface of all bodies,
bearing the exact likeness of the body itself. These films move
with infinite speed through void and are conveyed to the soul
by the various organs of sense. When we see a horse, an
image has come from the horse and passed through our eyes
into the soul. Taste, hearing, and smell are explained in just
the same way ; only the atoms of smells travel slower than the
atoms of sounds, and the atoms of sounds slower than the
atoms of visible things. Thought also is excited entirely by
material images; if we think of a Centaur, our thought is
due to an image of a horse which has got mixed up with the
image of a man. Lucretius goes so far as to say that when
we dream of dead friends, our dream is due to a material
image of them; but it seems impossible to explain how any-
thing that no longer exists can discharge an image. Finally to
iniages is ascribed the origin of bclicf in the gods ; but here too
there is some inconsistency^

^ See note to I. 11 70.

INTR OD UCTION. xxv

(4) The Gods. Epicurus taught that the gods are immortal
and perfectly happy. But this happiness would be perturbed if
they sympathised with the sorrows of men. Therefore he held
that they were absolutely regardless of human aflfairs and
indifferent to our merits or demerits. Their body consists of
atoms so fine as to be invisible to our senses; they live in
spaces between worlds (nfTaKoa-ixia, hitermundid), where no
storms ever come. It is certain from the evil in the world
that the gods had no hand in making it.

This theory is beset with difficulties, which might perhaps
have been removed if Lucretius had fulfilled his intention of
explaining it at large'. But in fact the gods are quite out of
place in the system of Epicurus. Their place is occupied by
Nature, which is conceived, at all events by Lucretius, as an
omnipotent and omnipresent force, governing the universe by
fixed laws. If the Epicurean gods are included in the universe
and are formed of atoms, as we are told, how can they escape
the g^gral law that all combinations of atoms had a beginning
and must have an end ? To give a satisfactory answer, Epicurus
must have sacrificed the unity of his system.

(5) The Heavenly Bodies. His theory of knowledge led
Epicurus to strange conclusions in his astronomy. Everything,
he said, which can be tested by the senses and is confirmed by
them, is true ; again, opinions which cannot be brought to this
test and at the same time are not contradicted by it, are all
equally true. Thus it is a certain truth that the sun is really
about the same size as it appears to us to be, because a fire
on earth, so long as it is visible, does not diminish in size^,
But to say that the stars and the sun must move from some
one controlling cause, or that eclipses admit of only one expla-
nation, is a vain unphilosophical assumption. For these things
are beyond our powers of observation, and there are many
ways of explaining them, none of which is contradicted by the
evidence of the senses, and each of which must be true, if not
for our world, for some one of the countless worlds contained in
the universe.

^ V 155. -' See n. before I. 564.

xxvi INTRODUCTION.

It will be noticed that Lucretius often gives the right ex-
planation together with a variety of wrong ones, in dealing with
these matters. The astronomers of his time did not understand
the nature of attraction; and as they believed that the sun
revolved round the earth, they therefore took his apparent
motions to be real ; but they had some idea of the size of the
hcavenly bodies, and they explained correctly the motion of
the moon round the earth and the cause of eclipses.

V. The Celestial Sphere.

Nec, si rationem siderutn ignores, poetas ifitellegas.

Quintilian Inst. Or. i. 4.

The common celestial globe is a device for mapping the
apparent place of the stars in the sky, just as places on the earth
are shown on the terrestrial globe ; with this difiference, that to
see the constellations as they actually appear, the observer must

INTRODUCTION. xxxdi

imagine himself at the centre O of the sphere. In the accom-
panying figure, vvhich represents the celestial sphere as seen in
latitude 60° N., the places of the stars are not shown, but only
some imaginary circles to which their positions are referred.

The observer's Horison is represented by the circle NESW.
The half, NLFS, below the horizon, is of course invisible to the
observer.

The Axis, POP', is the direction of the earth's axis of rotation,
round which, in consequence of the earth's rotation, the starry
sphere appears to turn. The ancients believed that the earth
was really at rest in the centre of the universe and that the stars
were fixed to an invisible frame-work which revolved round the
earth.

The Poles P, P', are the points in which the axis meets the
sphere; they are called the North and South Poles respectively,

The Eguafor EQ\VK is an imaginary circle midway between
the poles. It meets the horizon in the East and West points, E
and W.

The sun has two apparent motions, which are both really
due to motions of the earth. The rotation of the earth on its
axis makes him appear to rise and set every day; while the
revolution of the earth in its orbit round the sun makes him
appear to travel round the sky once a year.

The Ediptic, ECWL, is the apparent annual path of the sun
among the stars. The celestial sphere appears to turn from
East to West; but the sun, in his anniial path, appears to
travel in the contrary direction.

The Zodiac, so named from the animals (^wSia) by which the
constellations are represented, is a narrow belt of sky on either
side of the echptic. It is divided into twelve equal portions
called the Signs of the Zodiac, which are named after the con-
stellations they contain.

The Nodes or Equinoxes are the points in which the ecliptic
cuts the equator. The sun in his course along the ecliptic from
West to East crosses the equator from South to North at the
time of the vernal equinox (March 2ist) in the sign of the Ram
(see 1. 687). His daily course in the sky then coincides exactly

xxviii INTRODUCTION.

with thc equator EQWR, exactly half of which is above the
horizon, so that the lengths of day and night are equal. In the
figure the node or point of intersection is for convenience repre-
sented as just setting at W; the ecliptic is shown in the position
which it would occupy at 6 p.m. on March 2ist. The sun
crosses the equator again from North to South at the time of
the autumnal equinox, in the sign of the Scales ; rising at E
at 6 a.m. on Sept. 23rd.

The Solstices are the points C and L of the sun's annual
path at which he is furthest from the equator. The sun is at
C and due south at noon on June 22nd. On that day his daily
course is the circle CG, the greater half of which is above the
horizon, so that the day is longer than the night. The sun is at
L at midnight on Dec. 2ist; the greater half of his daily course
LK, is then below the horizon (see II. 682—686).

These points are called Solstices because the sun, after
moving away from the equator, appears to stop and turn back.
They are also called Tropics, i.e. turning points. The summer
solstice C is in the sign of Cancer (the Crab), the winter solstice
L in that of Capricorn (the Goat); see 11. 615 — 617.

Eclipscs. The moon completes the circuit of the Zodiac once
a month. Her orbit is slightly inclined to the ecliptic; if it co-
incided with the ecliptic, it is evident that the moon would pass
between the earth and the sun every month, causing an eclipse.
As it is, eclipses can only occur when the moon happens to be
near one of the nodes of her orbit, i.e. those points where her orbit
intersects the ecliptic. An eclipse of the sun can only occur at
new moon, when the moon is between the sun and the earth ; an
eclipse of the moon, at full moon, when the moon is on the side
of the earth opposite to the sun, and passes through the cone of
the earth's shadow (see 1. 764).

ANALYSIS.

The fifth book of Lucretius is a kind of philosophical epic
with man for a hero, and describes the origin of the world, of
life, and of human society. This description is not irrelevant
to the main purpose of the work ; on the contrar)'-, the exposition
would be incomplete, if it were not shown that the world and
its inhabitants came into being and continue to exist from
purely natural causes. The book falls into two main divisions
of nearly equal length, the first of which relates the creation of
the world, the second the history of man.

After a panegyric on Epicurus (i — 54), the subjects to be
treated of are enumerated. These are :

i. The mortal nature of the world.

ii. The formation of the world.

iii. The kinds of animals which sprang from the earth.

iv. The origin of speech.

V. The origin of religion.

vi. The movements of the heavenly bodies.

The first subject is then begun, 91 — 109 ; but here a long
digression is inserted in which it is proved that the world is not
divine, and that the gods had nothing to do with the making of
it. The argument is resumed at 235 and ended at 415. The
formation of the world is next described, 416 — 563 ; but here
too there is a digression, 509 — 533, about the motion of the
stars. The rest of the first half of the book, 564 — 770, is taken
up by a very full discussion of the sun and moon, their size,
motions, and eclipses.

The second half begins with an account of the growth of
vegetation first and then of animals and men, 770 — 836. It is
next pointed out that in the struggle for existence many kinds
of animals became extinct ; but no such animals as a Centaur
or Scylla can at any time have existed, 837 — 924.

The rest of the book describes the development of man in
civilisation, and may be divided as follows :

^- 3

ANAL YSIS.

The condition of primitive man. 925 — 1010

The beginnings of civilisation. loii — 1027

The origin of speech. 1028 — 1090

The discovery of fire. 1091 — 1 104

The beginnings of political life. 1 105 — 1 160

The origin of religion. 1161 — 1240

The discovery of the metals. 1241 — 1280

The methods of early vv^arfare. 1281 — 1349

The invention of weaving. 135° — 1360

The beginnings of agriculture. 1361 — 1378

The invention of music. 1379 — M35

Complete civilisation. 1436 — 1457

Thus Lucretius discusses all the subjects he had promiscd
to discuss, and others as well ; but not in their original order.
So the account of the sun and moon, instead of coming last, is
given immediately after the account of the world's formation.
It is also clear that certain paragraphs did not form part of the
original sketch but were added subsequently. Thus at logi
the first discovery of fire is related, but, at loii, it was already
in general use. These inconsistent paragraphs are indicated in
the notes, as they occur.

T. LUCRETI CARI
DE RERUM NATURA

LIBER QUINTUS.

Quis potis est dignum pollenti pectore carmen

Condere pro rerum maiestate hisque repertis?

Quisve valet verbis tantum qui fingere laudes

Pro meritis eius possit qui talia nobis

Pectore parta suo quaesitaque praemia liquit ? 5

Nemo, ut opinor, erit mortali corpore cretus.

Nam si, ut ipsa petit maiestas cognita rerum,

Dicendum est, deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte Memmi,

Qui princeps vitae rationem invenit eam quae

Nunc appellatur sapientia, quique per artem 10

Fluctibus e tantis vitam tantisque tenebris

In tam tranquillo et tam clara luce locavit. -wt..^

Confer enim divina aliorum antiqua reperta;

Namque Ceres fertur fruges Liberque liquoris

Vitigeni laticem mortalibus instituisse; 15

Cum tamen his posset sine rebus vita manere,

Ut fama est aliquas etiam nunc vivere gentes.

At bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi;

Quo magis hic merito nobis deus esse videtur,

Ex quo nunc etiam per magnas didita gentes 20

3—2

2 DE RERUM NATURA

Dulcia permulcent animos solacia vitae.

Herculis antistare autem si facta putabis,

Longius a vera multo ratione ferere.

Quid Nemeaeus enim nobis nunc magnus hiatus

Ille leonis obesset et horrens Arcadius sus? 25

Denique quid Cretae taurus Lernaeaque pestis

Hydra venenatis posset vallata colubris?

Quidve tripectora tergemini vis Geryonai,

Qidd vobicres pe?i?iis aeratis invia stagna

Tanto opere officerent nobis Stymphala colentes,

Et Diomedis equi spirantes naribus ignem 30

Thracis Bistoniasque plagas atque Ismara propter?

Aureaque Hesperidum servans fulgentia mala,

Asper, acerba tuens, immani corpore serpens

Arboris amplexus stirpem quid.denique obesset

Propter Atlanteum Htus pelagtque sonora, 35

Quo neque noster adit quisquam nec barbarus audet ?

Cetera de genere hoc quae sunt portenta perempta,

Si non victa forent, quid tandem viva nocerent?

Nil, ut opinor : ita ad satiatem terra ferarum

Nunc etiam scatit et trepido terrore repleta est 40

Per nemora ac montes magnos silvasque profundas;

Quae loca vitandi plerumque est nostra potestas.

At nisi purgatumst pectus, quae proeha nobis

Atque pericula tumst ingratis insinuandum !

Quantae tum scindunt hominem cuppedinis acres 45

Solhcitum curae quantique perinde timores !

Quidve superbia spurcitia ac petulantia? quantas

Efficiunt clades ! quid luxus desidiaeque ? •"

Haec igitur qui cuncta subegerit ex animoque

Expulerit dictis, non armis, nonne decebit 50

Hunc hominem numero divom dignarier esse?

Cum bcne praesertim multa ac divinitus ipsis

LIBER QUINTUS. 3

Immortalibu' de divis dare dicta suerit
Atque omnem rerum naturam pandere dictis.

Cuius ego ingressus vestigia dum rationes 55

Persequor ac doceo dictis, quo quaeque creata
Foedere sint, in eo quam sit durare necessum
Nec validas valeant aevi rescindere leges,
Quo genere in primis animi natura reperta est
Nativo primum consistere corpore creta •<^ do

Nec posse incolumis magnum durare per aevu«i$

S" Sed simulacra solere in somnis fallere mentenij'
Cernere cum videamur eum quem vita reliquit,
Quod superest, nunc huc rationis detulit ordo,

i^ Ut mihi mortah consistere corpore mundum 65

Nativumque simul ratio reddunda sit esse; •
Et quibus ille modis congressus materiai
Fundarit terram caelum mare sidera solem
Lunaique globum ; tum quae teUure animantes
Extiterint, et quae nullo sint tempore natae ; 70

Quove modo genus humanura variante loqueUa
Coeperit inter se vesci per nomina rerum ;
Et quibus iUe modis divom metus insinuarit
Pectora, terrarum qui in orbi sancta tuetur
Fana lacus lucos aras simulacraque divom. . 75

Praeterea sohs cursus lunaeque meatus
Expediam qua vi flectat natura gubernans;
Ne forte haec inter caelum terramque reamur
Libera sponte sua cursus lustrare perennes
Morigera ad fruges augendas atque animantes, 80

Neve ahqua divum volvi ratione putemus.
Nam bene qui didicere deos securum agere aevom,
Si tamen interea mirantur qua ratione
Quaeque geri possint, praesertim rebus in iUis
Quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris, 85

4 DE RERUM NATURA

Rursus in antiquas referuntur religiones

Et dominos acres adsciscunt, omnia posse

Quos miseri credunt, ignari quid queat esse,

Quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuique

Quanam sit ratione atque alte terminus haerens. 90

Quod superest, ne te in promissis plura moremur,
Principio maria ac terras caelumque tuere;
Quorum naturam triplicem, tria corpora, Memmi,
Tres species tam dissimiles, tria talia texta,
Una dies dabit exitio, multosque per annos 95

Sustentata ruet moles et machina mundi.
Nec me animi fallit quam res nova miraque menti
Accidat exitium caeli terraeque futurum,
Et quam difficile id mihi sit pervincere dictis;
Ut fit ubi insolitam rem adportes auribus ante 100

Nec tamen hanc possis oculorum subdere visu-* ^<*«**»
Nec iacere indu manus, via qua munita fidei
Proxima fert humanum in pectus templaque mentis.
Sed tamen eflfabor. Dictis dabit ipsa fidem res
Forsitan et graviter terrarum motibus ortis 105

Omnia conquassari in parvo tempore cernes.
Quod procul a nobis flectat fortuna gubernans,
Et ratio potius quam res persuadeat ipsa
Succidere horrisono posse omnia victa fragore.

Qua prius adgrediar quam de re fundere fata iio

Sanctius et multo certa ratione magis quam
Pythia quae tripode a Phoebi lauroque profatur,
Multa tibi expediam doctis solacia dictis;
Religione refrenatus ne forte rearis

Terras et solem et caelum, mare sidera lunam, 115

Corpore divino debere aetema manere,
Proptereaque putes ritu par esse Gigantum
Pendere eos poenas inmani pro scelere onuies

LIBER QUINTUS. 5

Qui ratione sua disturbent moenia mundi
Praeclarumque velint caeli restinguere solem, 120

Inmortalia raortali sermone notantes;
Quae procul usque adeo divino a numine distant,
Inque deura numero quae sint indigna videntur,
Notitiam potius praebere ut posse putentur
Quid sit vitali motu sensuque remotum. 125

Quippe etenira non est, cum quovis corpore ut esse
Posse animi natura putetur consiliumque ;
Sicut in aethere non arbor, non aequore salso
Nubes esse queunt neque pisces vivere in arvis
Nec cruor in lignis neque saxis sucus inesse. 130

Certum ac dispositumst ubi quicquid crescat et insit.
Sic ajnimi^jigjjjra nequit sine corpore oriri
Sola^neque a nervis et sanguine longiter esse.
Quod si (posset enim multo prius) ipsa animi vis
In capite aut umeris aut imis calcibus esse 135

Posset et innasci quavis in parte, soleret
Tandem in eodem homine atque in eodem vase manere.
Quod quoniam nostro" quoque constat corpore certum
Dispositumque videtur ubi esse et crescere possit
Seorsura anima atque animus, tanto magis infitiandum 140
Totum posse extra corpus formamque animalem
Putribus in glebis terrarum aut sohs in igni
Aut in aqua durare aut altis aetheris oris.
Haud igitur constant divino praedita sensu,
Quandoquidem nequeunt vitahter esse animata. 145

* Illud item non est ut possis credere, sedes
Esse deum sanctas in mundi partibus uUis.
Tenuis enim natura deum longeque remota
Sensibus ab nostris animi vix mente videtur;
Quae quoniam manuum tactum suffugit et ictum, 150
Tactile nil nobis quod sit contingere debet.

6 DE RERUM NATURA

Tangere enim non quit quod tangi non licet ipsum.

Quare etiam sedes quoque nostris sedibus esse

Dissimiles debent, tenues de corpore eorum;

Quae tibi posterius largo sermone probabo. ^Vi^^

Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse parare

Praeclaram mundi naturam proptereaque

Adlaudabile opus divom laudare decere

Aeternumque putare atque inmortale futurum,

Nec fas esse, deum quod sit ratione vetusta i6o

Gentibus humanis fundatum perpetuo ae\'0,

Sollicitare suis ulla vi ex sedibus umquam

Nec verbis vexare et ab imo evertere sun^ia,^-^-''^"»^*^^ •

Cetera de genere hoc adfingere et addere, Memmi,

Desiperest. Quid enim inmortalibus atque beatis 165

Gratia nostra queat largirier emolumenti,

Ut nostra quicquam causa gerere adgrediantur?

Quidve novi potuit tanto post ante quietos

Inlicere ut cuperent vitam mutare priorem ?

Nam gaudere novis rebus debere videtur 170

Cui veteres obsunt ; sed cui nil accidit aegri

Tempore in anteacto, cum pulchre degeret aevum,

Quid potuit novitatis amorem accendere tali?

At, credo, in tenebris vita ac maerore iacebat,

Donec diluxit rerum genitahs origo. 175

Quidve mali fuerat nobis non esse creatis?

Natus enim^ebet quicumque est velle manere

In vita, doii.ec retinebit blanda voluptas.

Qui numquam vero vitae gustavit amorem

Nec fuit in numero, quid obest non esse creatum? 180

Exemplum porro gignundis rebus et ips^.

Notities divis hominum unde est insita pripnum,

Quid vellent facere ut scirent animoque viderent ?

Quove rnodost umquam vis cocjnita principiorum

LIBER QUINTUS. 7

Quidque inter sese permutato ordine possent, 185

Si non ipsa dedit specimen natura creandi?
Namque ita multa modis multis primordia rerum
Ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis
Ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri
Omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare, 190

Quaecumque inter se possent congressa creare,
Ut non sit mirum si in tales disposituras
Deciderunt quoque et in tales venere meatus,
Qualibus haec rerum geritur nunc summa novando.'i '

Quod si iam rerum ignorem primordia quae sint, 195
Hoc tamen ex ipsis caeli rationibus ausim '
Confirmare aliisque ex rebus reddere multis,
Nequaquam nobis divinitus esse paratam
Naturam rerum ; tanta stat praedita culpa.
■"•IVincipio quantum caeli tegit impetus ingens, 200

Inde avidi partem montes silvaeque ferarum
Possedere, tenent rupes vastaeque paludes
Et mare quod late terrarum distinet oras.
Inde duas porro prope partes fervidus ardor ^
Adsiduusque geli casus mortalibus aufert. 205

Quod superest arvi, tamen id natura sua vi
Sentibus obducat, ni vis humana resistat
Vitai causa vaUdo consueta bidenti
Ingemere et terram pressis proscindere aratris.
Si non fecundas vertentes vomere glebas 210

Terraique solum subigentes cimus ad ortus,
Sponte sua nequeant liquidas existere in auras,
Et tamen interdum magno quaesita labore
Cum iam per terras frondent atque omnia florent,
Aut nimiis torret fervoribus aetherius sol 215

Aut subiti peremunt imbres geUdaeque pijuinae,
Flabraque ventorum violento turbine vexant. \/'

8 DE RERUM NATURA

Praeterea genus horriferum natura ferarum

Humanae genti infestum terraque marique

Cur alit atque auget? cur anni tempora morbos

Adportant? quare mors inmatura vagatur?

Tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis

Navita, nudus humi iacet, infans, indigus omni

Vitali auxiUo, cum primum in luminis oras

Nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,

Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aequumst

Cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.

At variae crescunt pecudes armenta feraeque

Nec crepitacillis opus est nec cuiquam adhibendast

Almae nutricis blanda atque infracta loquella 230

Nec varias quaerunt vestes pro tempore caeli,

Denique non armis opus est, non moenibus altis,

Qui sua tutentur, quando omnibus omnia large

Tellus ipsa parit naturaque daedala rfrum.

Principio quoniam terrai cbrpus et urnor "^ ■ ■-•-' 235
Aurarumque leves animae caUdique vapores,
E quibus haec rerum consistere summa videtur,
Omnia nativo ac mortaU corpore constant,
Debet eodem omnis mundi natura putarL . .

Quippe etenim quorum partes et membra videmus, 240
Corpore nativo ac mortaUbus esse figuris, •

Haec eadem ferme mortaUa cernimus esse
Et nativa simul. Quapropter maxima mundi
Cum videam membra ac partes consumpta regigni,
Scire Ucet caeU quoque item terraeque fuisse 245

Principiale aUquod tempus clademque futuram.

lUud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis
Me mihi, quod terram atque ignem mortaUa sumpsi
Esse neque umorem dubitavi aurasque perire
Atque eadem gigni rursusque augescere dixi, 250

LIBER QUINTUS. 9

Principio pars terrai nonnulkj perusta

Solibus adsiduis, multa pulsata pedum vi,

Pulveris exhalat nebulam nubesque volantes

Quas validi toto dispergunt aere venti.

Pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur 255

Imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt.

Praeterea pro parte sua, quodcumque alid auget,

Redditur; et quoniam dubio procul esse videtur

Omniparensf eadem rerum commune sepulcrum,

Ergo terra tibi libatur et aucta recrescit. 260

Quod superest, umore novo mare flumina fontes
Semper abundare et latices manare perennes
Nil opus est verbis : magnus decursus aquarum
Undique declarat. Sed primum quicquid aquai
Tollituj^ in summaque fit ut nil umor abundet, 265

Partim quod validi verrentes aequora venti •
Diminuunt radiisque retexens aetherius sol,
Partim quod subter per terras diditur omnes.
Percolatur enim virus retroque remanat
Materies umoris et ad caput amnibus omnis 270

Convenit, inde super terras fluit agmine dulci
Qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas.

Aera nunc igitur dicam qui corpore toto JLo-^ .

Innumerabiliter priva^jnutatur in ]\oxa.5. J^*-^\^^
Semper enim, quodcumque tluit de rebus, id omne 275
Aeris in magnum fertur mare; qui nisi contra
Corpora retribuat rebus recreetque fluentes,
Omnia iam resoluta forent et in aera versa.
Haud igitur cessat gigni de rebus et in res
Reccidere, adsidue quoniam fluere omnia constat. 280

Largus item liquidi fons luminis, aetherius sol,
Inrigat adsidue caelum candore recenti
Suppeditatque novo confestim lumine lumen.

DE RERUM NATURA

Nam primum ^uicquicr fulgoris disperit ei,
Quocumque accidit. Id licet hinc cognoscere possis, 285
Quod simul ac primum nubes succedere soli
Coepere et radios intet quasi 'nimpere lucis,
Extemplo inferior pars horum disperit omnis
Terraque inumbratur qu^nimbi cumque feruntur;
^ Ut noscas splendore novo res semper egere 290

Et primum iactum fulgoris quemque perire
Nec ratione alia res posse in sole videri,
Perpetuo ni suppeditet lucis caput ipsum.
Quin etiam nocturna tibi, terrestria quae sunt, ^
Lumina, pendentes lychini claraeque coruscis^*'^ 295
Fulguribus pingues multa caligine taedae - '

Consimili properant ratione, ardore ministro,
Suppeditare novum lumen, tremere ignibus instant,
Instant, nec loca lux inter quasi rupta relinquit.
Usque adeo properanter ab omnibus ignibus ei 300

Exitium celeri celatur origine flammae.
Sic igitur solem lunam stellasque putandumst
Ex aUo atque alio lucem iactare subortu
Et primum quicquid flammarum perdere semper;
Inviolabilia haec ne credas forte vigere. 305

Denique non lapides quoque \inci cemis ab aevo,
Non altas turres ruere et putrescere saxa,
Non delubra deum simulacraque fessa fatisci,
Nec sanctum numen fati protoUere fines
Posse neque adversus naturae foedera niti? 310

Denique non monimenta virum dilapsa videmus,
Aeraque proporro solidumque senescere ferrum,
Non ruere avolsos silices a montibus altis
Nec validas aevi vires perferre patique
Finiti? neque enim caderent avolsa repente, 315

Ex infinito quae tempore pertolerassent

/

LIBER QUINTUS. ^j^

Omnia tormenta aetatis privata fragore. r

Denique iara tuere hoc, circum supraque quod omnem
Continet amplexu terram : si procreat ex se
Omnia, quod quidam memorant, recipitque perempta, 320
Totum nativum mortali corpore constat.
Nam quodcumque alias ex se res auget alitque,
Deminui debet, recreari, cum recipit res.

Praeterea si nuUa fuit genitalis origo
Terrarum et caeli semperque aeterna fuere, 325

^ur supera bellum Thebanum et funera Troiae
Non ahas ahi quoque res cecinere poetae?
Quo tot facta virum totiens cecidere neque usquam
Aeternis famae monimentis insita florent?
Verum, ut opinor, habet novitatem summa recensque 330
Naturast mundi neque pridem exordia cepit.
Quare etiam quaedam nunc artes expohuntur,
Nunc etiani augescunt ; nunc addita navigiis sunt
Multa, modo organici mehcos peperere sonores.
Denique natura haec rerum ratioque repertast 335

Nuper, et hanc primus cum primis ipse repertus
Nunc ego sum in patrias qui possim vertere voces.
Quod si forte fuisse antehac eadem omnia credis,
Sed periisse hominum torrenti saecla vapore,
Aut cecidisse urbes magno vexamine mundi, 340

Aut ex imbribus adsiduis exisse rapaces
Per terras amnes atque oppida cooperuisse,
Tanto quiqUe magis victus fateare necessest
Exitium quoque terrarum caehque futurum.
Nam cum res tantis morbis tantisque perichs 345

Temptarentur, ibi si tristior incubuisset
Causa, darent late cladem magnasque ruinas.
Nec ratione aha mortales esse videmur
Inter nos, nisi quod morbis aegrescimus isdem

12 DE RERUM NATURA

Atque illi quos a vita natura removit. ■^So

Praeterea quaecumque manent aeterna necessumst
Aut, quia sunt solido cum corpore, respuere ictus
Nec penetrare pati sibi quicquam quod queat artas
Dissociare intus partes, ut materiai

Corpora sunt quorum naturara ostendimus ante, 355

Aut ideo durare aetatem posse per omnem,
Plagarum quia sunt expertia, sicut inane est
Quod manet intactum neque ab ictu fungitur hilum,
Aut etiam quia nulla loci fit copia circum,
Quo quasi res possint discedere dissoluique, 360

Sicut summarum summa est aeterna neque extra
Qui locus est quo dissiliant neque corpora sunt quae
Possint incidere et valida dissolvere plaga.
At neque, uti docui, solido cum corpore mundi
Naturast, quoniam admixtumst in rebus inane; 365

Nec tamen est ut inane, neque autem corpora desunt,
Ex infinito quae possint forte coorta
Corruere hanc rerum violento turbine summam
Aut aliam quamvis cladem inportare pericU;
Nec porro natura loci spatiumque profundi 370

Deficit, exspargi quo possint moenia mundi;
Aut alia quavis possunt vi pulsa perire.
Haud igitur leti praeclusa est ianua caelo
Nec soli terraeque neque altis aequoris undis,
Sed patet imman# et vasto respectat hiatu. 375

Quare etiam nativa necessumst confiteare
Haec eadem; neque enim, mortali corpore quae sunt,
Ex infinito iam tempore adhuc potuissent
Inmensi vaUdas aevi contemnere vires.

Denique tantopere inter se cum maxima mundi 380
Pugnent membra, pio nequaquam concita bello,
Nonne vides aUquam longi certaminis oljis

LIBER QUINTUS. 13

Posse dari finem? vel cum sol et vapor omnis

Omnibus epotis umoribus exsuperarint:

Quod facere intendunt, neque adhuc conata patrarunt: 385

Tantum suppeditant amnes ultraque minantur

Omnia diluviare ex alto gurgite poTfti ;

Nequiquam, quoniam verrentes aequora venti

Deminuunt radiisque retexSns aetherius sol,

Et siccare prius confidunt omnia posse 390

Quam iiquor incepti possit contingere finem.

Tantum spirantes aequo certamine bellum

Magnis inter se de rebus cernere certant,

Cum semel interea fi.ierit superantior ignis

Et semel, ut fama est, umor regnarit in arvis. 395

Ignis enim superat et lambens multa perussit,

Avia cum Phaethonta rapax vis solis equorum

Aethere raptavit toto terrasque per omnes.

At pater omnipotens ira tum percitus acri

Magnanimum Phaethonta repenti fulminis ictu 400

Deturbavit equis in terram, solque cadenti

Obvius aeternam succepit lampada mundi

Disiectosque redegit equos iunxitque trementes,

Inde suum per iter recreavit cuncta gubemans,

Scilicet ut veteres Graium cecinere poetae. 405

Quod procul a vera nimis est ratione repulsum.

Ignis enim superare potest ubi materiai

Ex infinito sunt corpora plura coorta ;

Inde cadunt vires aliqua ratione revictae,

Aut pereunt res exustae torrentibus auris. 410

Umor item quondam coepit superare coortus,

Ut fama est, hominum multas quando obruit urbes.

Inde ubi vis aUqua ratione aversa recessit,

Ex infinito fuerat quaecumque coorta,

Constiterunt imbres et flumina vim minuerunt. 415

14 DE RERUM NATURA

Sed quibus ille modis coniectus materiai
Fundarit terram et caelum pontique profunda,
Solis lunai cursus, ex ordine ponara.
Nam certe neque consilio primordia rerura
Ordine se suo quaeque sagaci mente locarunt 420

5 Nec quos quaeque darent motus pepigere profecto,
Sed quia multa modis multis primordia rerum
Ex infinito iam tempore percita plagis
Ponderibusque suis consuerunt concita ferri
Omnimodisque coire atque omnia pertemptare, 425

Quaecumque inter se possent congressa creare,
Propterea fit uti magnum volgata per aevom
Omne gen,us coetus et raotus experiundo
Tandem conveniaht ea quae convecta repente •

Magnarura rerura fiunt exordia saepe, 430

Terrai raaris et caeli generisque aniraantura.

Hic neque tum solis rota cerni lumine largo
Altivolans poterat nec magni sidera mundi
Nec raare nec caelum nec denique terra neque aer
Nec similis nostris rebus res ulla videri,
Sed nova terapestas quaedam molesque coorta ^^lyw/***'
Qrane genus de principiis, discordia quorum
Intervalla vias conexus pondera plagas
Concursus motus turbabat proelia miscens,
Propter dissimiles formas variasque figuras 440

Quod non orania sic poterant coniuncta raanere
Nec motus inter sese dare convenientes.
DifTugere inde loci partes coepere paresqu^
Cum paribus iungi res et discludere mundum
Membraque dividere et magnas disponere partes, 445

Hoc est, a terris altum secernere caelum,
Et sorsum mare uti secreto umore pateret,
Seorsus itera puri secretique aetheris ignes.

LIBER QUINTUS. 15

Quippe etenim primura terrai corpora quaeque,
Propterea quod erant gravia et perplexa, coibant 450

In medio atque imas capiebant omnia sedes;
Quae quanto magis inter se perglexa coibant,
Tam magis expressere ea quae mare sidera solem
Lunamque efficerent et magni moenia mundi.
Omnia enim magis haec e levibus atque rotundis 455
Seminibus multoque minoribu' sunt elementis
Quam tellus. Ideo, per rara foramina, terrae
Partibus erumpens primus se sustulit aether
Ignifer et multos secum levis abstuUt ignes;
Non aha longe ratione ac saepe videmus, 460

Aurea cum primura gemmantes rore per herbas
Matutina rubent radiati lumina sohs
Exhalantque lacus nebulam fluviique perennes,
Ipsaque ut interdum tellus fumare videtur;
Omnia quae sursum cura concihantur, in aUo 465

Corpore concreto subtexunt nubila caelura.
Sic igitur tum se levis ac diffusihs aether
Corpore concreto circumdatus undique flexit
Et late diffusus in omnes undique partes
Omnia sic avido complexu cetera saepsit. 470

Hunc exordia sunt sohs lunaeque secuta,
Interutrasque globi quorum vertuntur in auris ;
Quae neque terra sibi adscivit nec maximus aether,
Quod neque tam fuerunt gravia ut depressa sederent,
Nec levia ut possent per sumraas labier oras, 475

Et taraen interutrasque ita sunt ut corpora viva
Versent et partes ut mundi totius extent;
Quod genus in nobis quaedam Hcet in statione
Membra raanere, taraen cum sint ea quae moveantur.
His igitur rebus retractis terra repente, 480

Maxuma qua nunc se ponti plaga caerula tendit,
u. 4

i6

DE RERUM NATURA

Succidit et salso suffudit gurgite fossas.

Inque dies quanto circum magis aetheris aestus

Et radii solis cogebant undique terram

Verberibus crebris extrema ad limina in artum, 485

In raedio ut propulsa suo condensa coiret,

Tam magis expressus salsus de corpore sudor

Augebat mare manando camposque natantes,

Et tanto magis illa foras elapsa volabant

Corpora multa vaporis et aeris altaque caeli 490

Densebant procul a terris fulgentia templa.

Sidebant campi, crescebant montibus altis

Ascensus ; neque enim poterant subsidere saxa

Nec pariter tantundem omnes succumbere partes.

Sic igitur terrae concreto corpore pondus 495

Constitit atque omnis mundi quasi limus in imuni
Confiuxit gravis et subsedit funditus ut faex ;
Inde mare inde aer inde aether ignifer ipse
Corporibus liquidis sunt omnia pura relicta,
Et leviora aliis alia, et liquidissimus aether 500

Atque levissimus aerias super influit auras,
Nec liquidum corpus turbantibus aeris auris
Commiscet; sinit haec violentis omnia verti
Turbinibus, sinit incertis turbare procellis,
Ipse suos ignes certo fert impete labens. 505

Nam modice fluere atque uno posse aethera nisu
Significat Pontos, mare certo quod fluit aestu
Unum labendi conservans usque tenorem.

Motibus astrorum nunc quae sit causa canamus.
Principio magnus caeli si vertitur orbis, 510

Ex utraque pokim parti premere aera nobis
Dicendum est extraque tenere et claudere utrimque ;
Inde aUum supra fluere atque intendere eodem
Quo volvenda micant aeterni sidera mundi ;

LIBER QUINTUS. 17

Aut alium subter, contra qui subvehat orbem, 515

. Ut fluvios versare rotas atque haustra videmus.
Est etiam quoque uti possit caelum omne manere
In statione tamen cum lucida signa ferantur;
Sive quod inclusi rapidi sunt aetheris aestus
Quaerentesque viam circum versantur et ignes c;2o

Passim per caeli volvunt Summania templa;
Sive ahunde fluens alicunde extrinsecus aer
Versat agens ignes; sive ipsi serpere possunt
Quo cuiusque cibus vocat atque invitat euntes,
Flammea per caelum pascentes corpora passim. / 525
Nam quid in hoc mundo sit eorum ponere certum
Difiicile est; sed quid possit fiatque per omne
In variis mundis varia ratione creatis,
Id doceo pluresque sequor disponere causas,
Motibus astrorum quae possint esse per omne ; 530

E quibus una tamen sit in hoc quoque causa necessest
Quae vegeat motum signis ; sed quae sit earum
Praecipere haudquaquamst pedetemptim progredienti^,

Terraque ut in media mundi regione quiescat,
Evanescere paulatim et decrescere pondus 535

Convenit, atque aUam naturam subter habere
Ex ineunte aevo coniunctam atque uniter aptam
Partibus aeriis mundi quibus insita vivit.
Propterea non est oneri neque deprimit auras ;
Ut sua cuique homini nullo sunt pondere membra 540
Nec caput est oneri coUo nec denique totum
Corporis in pedibus pondus sentimus inesse ;
At quaecumque foris veniunt impostaque nobis
Pondera sunt laedunt, permulto saepe minora.
Usque adeo magni refert quid quaeque obeat res. 545
Sic igitur tellus non est aliena repente
AUata atque auris aHunde obiecta aUenis,

4—2

i8 DE RERUM NATURA

Sed pariter prima concepta ab origine mundi

Certaque pars eius, quasi nobis membra videntur.

Praeterea grandi tonitru concussa repente 550

Terra supra quae se sunt concutit omnia motu ;

Quod facere haud ulla posset ratione, nisi esset

Partibus aeriis mundi caeloque revincta.

Nam communibus inter se radicibus haerent

Ex ineunte aevo coniuncta atque uniter apta. 555

Nonne vides etiam quam magno pondere nobis

Sustineat corpus tenuissiraa vis animai

Propterea quia tam coniuncta atque uniter apta est?

Denique iam saltu pernici toUere corpus

Quid potis est nisi vis animi quae membra gubernat? 560

lamne vides quantum tenuis natura valere

Possit, ubi est coniuncta gravi cum corpore, ut aer

Coniunctus terris et nobis est animi vis?

Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor
Esse potest, nostris quam sensibus esse videtur. 565

Nam quibus e spatiis cumque ignes lumina possunt
Adicere et calidum membris adflare vaporem,
Nil illa his intervallis de corpore libant
Flammarum, nil ad speciem est contractior ignis.
Proinde, calor quoniam solis lumenque profusum 570

Perveniunt nostros ad sensus et loca mulcent,
Forma quoque hinc soHs debet filumque videri^
Nil adeo ut possis plus aut minus addere, vere.
Lunaque sive notho fertur loca lumine lustrans 575

Sive suam proprio iactat de corpore lucem,
Quidquid id est, nilo fertur maiore figura
Quam, nostris oculis qua cernimus, esse videtur.
Nam prius omnia, quae longe semota tuemur
Aera per multum, specie confusa videntur 580

Quam minui filum. Quapropter luna necesse est,

LIBER QUINTUS. 19

Quandoquidem claram speciem certamque figuram
Praebet, ut est oris extremis cumque notata
Quantaque quantast hinc nobis videatur in alto.
Postremo quoscumque vides hinc aetheris ignes ; 585

Quandoquidem quoscumque in terris cernimus ignes,
Dum tremor est clarus, dum cernitur ardor eorum,
Perparvum quiddam interdum mutare videtur
Alteram utram in partem filum, quo longius absunt;
Scire licet perquam pauxillo posse minores 590

Esse vel exigua maiores parte brevique.

Illud item non est mirandum, qua ratione
Tantulus ille queat tantum sol mittere lumen,
Quod maria ac terras omnes caelumque rigando
Compleat et caHdo perfundat cuncta vapofe. 595

Nam licet hinc mundi patefactum totius unum
Largifluum fontem scatere atque erumpere lumen,
Ex omni mundo quia sic elementa vaporis
Undique conveniunt et sic coniectus eorum 600

Confluit, ex uno capite hic ut profluat ardor.
Nonne vides etiam quam late parvus aquai
Prata riget fons interdum campisque redundet?
Est etiam quoque uti non magno solis ab igni
Aera percipiat calidis fervoribus ardor, 605

Opportunus ita est si forte et idoneus aer,
Ut queat accendi parvis ardoribus ictuS ;
Quod genus interdurn segetes stipulamque videmus
Accidere ex una scintilla incendia passim.
Forsitan et rosea sol alte lampade lucens 610

Possideat multum caecis fervoribus ignem
Circum se, nullo qui sit fulgore notatus,
Aestifer ut tantum radiorum exaugeat ictum.

Nec ratio solis simplex et certa patescit,
Quo pacto aestivis e partibus aegocerotis 615

20 DE RERUM NATURA

Brumales adeat flexus atque inde revertens

Cancri se ut vertat metas ad solstitiales,

Lunaque mensibus id spatium videatur obire,

Annua sol in quo consumit tempora cursu.

Non, inquam, simplex his rebus reddita causast. G20

Nam fieri vel cum primis id posse videtur,

Democriti quod sancta viri sententia ponit,

Quanto quaeque magis sint terram sidera propter,

Tanto posse minus cum caeli turbine ferri.

Evanescere enim rapidas illius et acres 625

Imminui subter vires, ideoque relinqui

Paulatim solem cum posterioribu' signis,

Inferior multo quod sit quam fervida signa.

Et magis hoc lunam : quanto demissior eius

Cursus abest procul a caelo terrisque propinquat, 630

Tanto posse minus cum signis tendere cursum.

Flaccidiore etenim quanto iam turbine fertur

Inferior quam sol, tanto magis omnia signa

Hanc adipiscuntur circum praeterque feruntur.

Propterea fit ut haec ad signum quodque reverti 635

MobiUus videatur, ad hanc quia signa revisunt.

Fit quoque ut e fnundi transversis partibus aer

Alternis certo fluere alter tempore possit,

Qui queat aestivis solem detrudere signis

Brumales usque ad flexus gelidumque rigorem, 640

Et qui reiciat gelidis a frigoris umbris

Aestiferas usque in partes et fervida signa.

Et ratione pari lunam stellasque putandumst,

Quae volvunt magnos in magnis orbibus annos,

Aeribus posse alternis e partibus ire. 645

Nonne vides etiam diversis nubila ventis

Diversas ire in partes inferna supernis?-

Qui minus illa queant per magnos aetheris orbes 1

LIBER QUINTUS. 21

Aestibus inter se diversis sidera ferri?

At nox obruit ingenti caligine terras, 650

Aut ubi de longo cursu sol ultima caeli
Impulit atque suos efflavit languidus ignes Mjt^ *^
Concussos itere et labefactos aere multo,
Aut quia sub terras cursura convertere cogit
Vis eadem, supra quae terras pertulit orbem.in^ (^»^(i^%^5

Tempore item certo roseam Matuta per oras
Aetheris auroram differt et lumina pandit,
Aut quia sol idem, sub terras ille revertens,
Anticipat caelum radiis accendere temptans,
Aut quia conveniunt ignes et semina multa 660

Confluere ardoris consuerunt tempore certo,
Quae faciunt solis nova semper lumina gigni;
Quod genus Idaeis fama est e montibus altis
Dispersos ignes orienti lumine cerni,

Inde coire globum quasi in unum et conficere orbem. 665
Nec tamen illud in his rebus mirabile debet
Esse, quod haer ignis tam certo tempore possunt
Semina confluere et sohs reparare nitorem.
Multa videmus enim, certo quae tempore fiunt
Omnibus in rebus. Florescunt tempore certo 670

Arbusta et certo dimittunt tempore florem.
Nec minus in certo dentes cadere imperat aetas
Tempore et impubem moUi pubescere veste
Et pariter mollem malis demittere barbam.
Fulmina postremo nix imbres nubila venti 675

Non nimis incertis fiunt in partibus anni.
Namque ubi sic fuerunt causarum exordia prima,
Atque ita res mundi cecidere ab origine prima,
Conseque quoque iam redeunt ex ordine certo.

Crescere itemque dies licet et tahescere noctes, 6S0
Et minui luces cum sumant augmina noctes,

2 2 DE RERUM NATURA

Aul quia sol idem sub terras atque superne

Imparibus currens amfractibus aetheris oras

Partit et in partes non aequas dividit orbem,

Et quod ab alterutra detraxit parte, reponit 6S5

Eius in adversa tanto plus parte relatus,

Donec ad id signum caeli pervenit, ubi anni

Nodus nocturnas exaequat lucibus umbras.

Nam, medio cursu flatus aquilonis et austri,

Distinet aequato caelum discrimine metas 690

Propter signiferi posituram totius orbis,

Annua sol in quo concludit tempora serpens,

Obliquo terras et caelum lumine lustrans,

Ut ratio declarat eorum qui loca caeli

Omnia dispositis signis ornata notarunt. 695

Aut quia crassior est certis in partibus aer,

Sub terris ideo tremulum iubar haesitat ignisTi '^•^^

Nec penetrare potest facile atque emergere ad ortus.

Propterea noctes hiberno tempore longae

Cessant, dum veniat radiatum insigne diei. 700

Aut etiam, quia sic alternis partibus anni

Tardius et citius consuerunt confluere ignes

Qui faciunt solem certa desurgere parte,

Propterea fit uti videantur dicere verum

Qui faciunt solis seniper fiova lumina gigni.

Luna potest solis radiis percussa nitere 705

Inque dies magis id lumen convertere nobis
Ad speciem, quantum solis secedit ab orbi,
Donique eum contra pleno bene lumine fulsit
Atque oriens obitus eius super edita vidit ;
Inde minutatim retro quasi condere lumen 710

Debet item, quanto propius iam solis ad ignem
Labitur ex alia signorum parte per orbem ;
Ut faciunt, lunam qui fingunt esse pilai -'

LIBER QUINTUS. 23

Consimilem cursusque viam sub sole tenere.
Est etiam quare proprio cum lumine possit f****^-^-yi5
Volvier et varias splendoris reddere formas.
Corpus enim licet esse aliud quod fertur et una
Labitur omnimodis occursans officiensque
Nec potis est cerni, quia cassum lumine fertur. irv-^"*^
Versarique potest, globus ut, si forte, pilai h''''^ 7 20
Dimidia ex parti candenti lumine tinctus,
Versandoque globum variantes edere formas,
Donique eam partem, quaecumque est ignibus aucta,
Ad speciem vertit nobis oculosque patentes;
Inde minutatim retro contorquet et aufert 725

Luciferam partem glomeraminis atque pilai ; /-t-A-/>wuV-' /^
Ut Babylonica Chaldaeum doctrina refutans
qa Astrologorum artem contra convincere tendit,

I Proinde quasi id fieri nequeat quod pugnat uterque

Aut minus hoc illo sit cur amplectier ausis. 730

Denique cur nequeat semper nova luna creari
Ordine formarum certo certisque figuris
Inque dies privos aborisci quaeque creata
Atque alia illius reparari in parte locoque,
Difficilest ratione docere et vincere verbis, 735

'■ Ordine cum possint tam certo multa creari.
It ver et Venus, et Veneris praenuntius ante
Pennatus graditur, zephyri vestigia propter
Flora quibus mater praespargens ante viai
Cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet. 740

Inde loci sequitur calor aridus et comes una

"^^ Pulverulenta Ceres et etesia flabra aquilonum.
Inde autumnus atdit, graditur simul Euhius Euan.
Inde aliae tempestates ventique sequuntur,
Altitonans Volturnus et auster fulmine pollens. 745

Tandem bruma niyes adfert pigrumque rigorem

24 DE RERUM NATURA

Reddit : hiemps sequitur crepitans hanc dentibus algu.

Quo minus est mirum si certo tempore luna

Gignitur et certo deletur tempore rusus,

Cum fieri possint tam certo tempore multa. 750

Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras
Pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandumst.
Nam cur luna queat terram secludere solis
Lumine et a terris altum caput obstruere ei,
Obiciens caecum radiis ardentibus orbem; 755

(Jl^j^ sTempore eodem aliud facere id non posse putetur
Corpus quod cassum labatur lumine semper?
Solque suos etiam dimittere languidus ignes
Tempore cur certo nequeat recreareque lumen,
Cum loca praeteriit flamrnis infesta per auras, 760

Quae faciunt ignes interstingui atque perire?
Et cur terra queat lunam spoliare vicissim
Lumine et oppressum solem super ipsa tenere,
Menstrua dum rigidas coni perlabitur umbras;
Tempore eodem aliud nequeat succurrere lunae 765

Corpus vel supra solis perlabier orbem,
Quod radios interrumpat lumenque profusum?
Et tamen ipsa suo si fulget luna nitore,
Cur nequeat certa mundi languescere parte,
Dum loca luminibus propriis inimica per exit? 770

Quod superest, quoniam magni per caerula mundi
Qua fieri quicquid posset ratione resolvi,
Solis uti varios cursus lunaeque meatus
Noscere possemus quae vis et causa cieret, 775

ti^^ i.'ij{) Quove modo possent ofifecto lumine obire ^^ /a

^j^vt^-'' Et neque opinantes tenebris obducere terras,
, J^ V-i Cum quasi conivent et aperto lumine rursum

Omnia convisunt clara loca candida luce ; ^^*

Nunc rcdeo ad mundi novitatem et moUia terrae 780

llBER QUINTUS. 25

Arva, novo fetu quid primum in luminis or^s
Tollere et incertis crerint committere ventis. '^'
Principio genus herbarum viridemqile nitorem
Terra dedit circum colles camposque per omnes;
Florida fulserunt viridanti prata colore, 785

Arboribusque datumst variis exinde per auras
Crescendi magnum inmissis certamen habenis.
Ut pluma atque pili primum saetaeque creantur -a,v".' >^' '•'-
Quadripedum membris et corpore pennipotentum,
Sic nova tum tellus herbas virgultaque primum -^r-^'-^ '' 790
Sustulit, inde loci mortalia saecla creavit
Multa modis multis varia ratione coorta.
Nam neque de caelo cecidisse animalia possunt
Nec terrestria de salsis exisse lacunis.
Linquitur ut merito maternum nomen adepta 795

Terra sit, e terra quoniam sunt cuncta creata,
Multaque nunc etiam existunt animaHa terris
Imbribus et calido solis concreta vapore;
Quo minus est mirum si tum sunt plura coorta . ^ '
Et maiora, nova tellure atque aethere adulta.'^'' 800

Principio genus ahtuum variaeque volucres
Ova rehnquebant exclusae tempore verno,
FoUiculos ut nunc teretes aestate cicadae
Linquunt sponte sua victum vitamque petentes.
Tum tibi terra dedit primum mortaha saecla. 805

MuUus enim calor atque umor superabat in arvis.
Hoc ubi quaeque loci regio opportuna dabatur,
Crescebant uteri terram radicibus apti ; ' '"
Quos ubi tempore maturo patefecerat aestus
Infantum fugiens umorem aurasque petessens, 810

Convertebat ibi natura foramina terrae -'- -^ ' •^p-t'^
' Et sucum venis cogebat fundere apertis
Consimilem lactis, sicut nunc femina quaeque

^

26 D/t RERUM NATURA

Cum peperit, dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis

Impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti. 815

Terra cibum pueris, vestem vapor, herba cubile

Praebebat multa et molli lanugine abundans.

At novitas mundi nec frigora dura ciebat

Nec nimios aestus nec magnis viribus auras.

Omnia enim pariter crescunt et robora sumunt. 820

Quare etiam atque etiam maternum nomen adepta
Terra tenet raerito, quoniam genus ipsa creavit
Humanum atque animal prope certo tempore fudit
Omne quod in magnis bacchatur montibu' passim,
Aeriasque simul volucres variantibu' formis. 825

Sed quia finem aliquam pariendi debet habere,
Destitit, ut muher spatio defessa vetusto.
Mutat enim mundi naturam totius aetas,
Ex aUoque aUus status excipere omnia debet,
Nec manet uUa sui simiUs res : omnia migrant, 830

Omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit.
Namque aUud putrescit et aevo debile languet, '
Porro aUud clarescit et e contemptibus exit.
Sic igitur mundi naturam totius aetas
Mutat et ex aUo terram status excipit alter : 835

Quod potuit nequit, ut possit quod non tuUt ante.

Multaque tuni tellus etiam portenta creare
Conatast mira facie membrisque coorta,
^J- "Androgynum, interutrasque nec utrum, utrimque remotum,
, Orba pedum partim, manuum viduata vicissim, 840

Muta sine ore etiam, sine voltu caeca reperta,
Vinctaque membrorum per totum corpus adhaesu,
Nec facere ut possent quicquam nec cedere quoquaip
Nec vitare malum nec sumere quod foret usus.
Cetera de genere hoc monstra ac portenta creabat ; 845
Nequiquam, quoniam natura absterruit auctum

LIBER QUINTUS. 27

Nec potuere cupitum aetatis tangere florem

Nec reperire cibum nec iungi per Veneris res.

Multa videmus enim rebus concurrere debere,

Ut propagando possint procudere saecla. 850

Multaque tum interiisse animantum saecla necessest 85 5
Nec potuisse propagando procudere prolem.
Nam quaecumque vides vesci vitalibus auris,
Aut dolus aut virtus aut denique mobilitas est
Ex ineunte aevo genus id tutata reservans.
Multaque sunt, nobis ex utilitate sua quae 860

Commendata manent, tutelae tradita nostrae.
Principio genus acre leonum saevaque saecla
Tutatast virtus, volpes dolus et fuga cervos.
At levisomna canum fido cum pectore corda "*!i

Et genus omne quod est veterino semine partum /* 865
Lanigeraeque simul pecudes et bucera saecla " ^vt^^-^
Omnia sunt hominum tutelae tradita, Memmi.
Nam cupide fugere feras pacemque secuta
Sunt et larga suo sine pabula parta labore,
Quae damus utilitatis eorum praemia causa. 870

At quis nil horum tribuit natura, nec ipsa
Sponte sua possent ut vivere nec dare nobis
Utilitatem ahquam quare pateremur eorum
Praesidio nostro pasci genus esseque tutum,
Scilicet haec aliis praedae lucroque iacebant ([^ 875

Indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis,
Donec ad interitum genus id natura redegit.

Sed neque Centauri fuerunt, nec tempore in ullo
Esse queunt duplici natura et corpore bino
Ex aUenigenis membris compacta, potestas 880

Hinc illinc visque ut non sat par esse potissit.
Id licet hinc quamvis hebeti cognoscere corde. -^-^ ^^
Principio circum tribus actis impiger annis

28 DE RERUM NATURA

Floret equus, puer haudquaquam ; nam saepe etiam nunc
Ubera mammarum in somnis lactantia quaerct. 885

Post ubi equum validae vires aetate senecta
Membraque deficiunt fugienti languida vita, ^- *-^ ^
yTum demum puero illi aevo florente iuventas

>r'^ Occipit et moUi vestit lanugine malas.

"Ne forte ex homine et veterino semine equorum 890

Confieri credas Centauros posse neque esse,
Aut rabidis canibus succinctas semimarinis
Corporibus Sc^llas et cetera de genere horum,
Inter se quorum discordia membra videmus ;
Quae neque florescunt pariter nec robora sumunt 895
Corporibus neque proiciunt aetate senecta
Nec simili Venere ardescunt nec moribus unis
Conveniunt, neque sunt eadem iucunda per artus. \^
Quippe videre Ucet pinguescere saepe cicuta X.s-^i-r^
Barbigeras pecudes, homini quae est acre venenum. 900
Flamma quidem vero cum corpora fulva leonum
Tam soleat torrere atque urere quam genus omne
Visceris in terris quodcumque et sanguinis extet,

m ! Qui fieri potuit, tripHci cum corpore ut una,

Prima leo, postrema draco, media ipsa, Chimaera 905

Ore foras acrem flaret de corpore flammam?

Quare etiam tellure nova caeloque recenti

TaUa qui fingit potuisse animaUa gigni,

Nixus in hoc uno novitatis nomine inani,

Multa Ucet simiU ratione eflfutiat ore, 910

Aurea tum dicat per terras flumina vulgo -'

Fluxisse et gemmis florere arbusta suesse

Aut hominem tanto membrorum esse impete natum,

Trans maria aUa pedum nisus ut ponere posset

Et manibus totum circum se vertere caelum. 915

Nam quod muUa fuere in terris semina rerum

'ZJ^

LIBER QUINTUS. 29

Tempore quo primum tellus animalia fudit,

Nil tamen est signi mixtas potuisse creari

Inter se pecudes compactaque membra animantum,

Propterea quia quae de terris nunc quoque abundant 920

Herbarum genera ac fruges arbustaque laeta

Non tamen inter se possunt complexa creari,

Sed res quaeque suo ritu procedit et omnes

Foedere naturae certo discrimina servant.

At genus humanum multo fuit illud in arvis 925

Durius, ut decuit, tellus quod dura creasset, ^"^x
Et maioribus et solidis magis ossibus intus
jM' *^Fundatum, validis aptum per viscera nervis,
Nec facile ex aestu nec frigore quod capejetur
Nec novitate cibi nec labi corporis ulla. 930

Multaque per caelum solis volventia lustra
Volgivago vitam tractabant more ferarum.
Nec robustus erat curvi moderator aratri
Quisquam, nec scibat ferro molirier arva
Nec nova defpdere in terram virgulta neque altis 935
Arboribus veteres decidere falcibu' ramos.
Quod sol atque imbres dederant, quod terra crearat
Sponte sua, satis id placabat pectora donum.
Glandiferas inter curabant corpora quercus
Plerumque ; et quae nunc hiberno tempore cernis 940
Arbita puniceo fieri matura colore,
Plurima tum tellus etiam maiora ferebat.
Multaque praeterea novitas tum florida mundi
Pabula dura tulit, miseris mortahbus ampla.
At sedare sitim fluvii fontesque vocabant, 945

Ut nunc montibus e magnis decursus aquai
Claru' citat late sitientia saecla ferarum.
Denique nota vagi silvestria templa tenebant
Nympharum, quibus e scibant umori' fluenta /

30 DE RERUM NATURA

aL<^i^' Lubrica proluvie larga lavere umida saxa, 950

•vttxx*c ' ' XJmida saxa, super viridi stillantia musco,
Qr.KtX,">l Et partim plano scatere atque erumpere campo.
Necdum res igni scibant tractare neque uti
Pellibus et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum,
Sed nemora atque cavos montes silvasque colebant 955
Et frutices inter condebant squalida membra
Verbera ventorum vitare imbresque coacti.
Nec commune bonum poterant spectare neque ullis
Moribus inter se scibant nec legibus uti.
Quod cuique obtulerat praedae fortuna, ferebat 960

Sponte sua sibi quisque valere et vivere doctus.
Et Venus in silvis iungebat corpora amantum ;
Conciliabat enim vel mutua quamque cupido
Vel pretium, glandes atque arbita vel pira lecta. 965

Et manuum mira freti virtute pedumque
Consectabantur silvestria saecla ferarum
Missilibus saxis et magno pondere clavae ;
Multaque vincebant, vitabant pauca latebris;
Saetigerisque pares subu' sic silvestria membra 970

Nuda dabant terrae nocturno tempore capti,
Circum se foliis ac frondibus involventes.
Nec plangore diem magno solemque per agros
Quaerebant pavidi palantes noctis in umbris,
Sed taciti respectabant somnoque sepulti, 975

Dum rosea face sol inferret lumina caelo.
A parvis quod enim consuerant cernere semper
Alterno tenebras et lucem tempore gigni,
Non erat ut fieri posset mirarier umquam
Nec diffidere ne terras aeterna teneret 980

Nox in perpetuum detracto lumine solis.
Sed magis illud erat curae, quod saecla ferarum
Infestam miseris faciebant saepe quietem.

LIBER QUINTUS. 31

Eiectique domo fugiebant saxea tecta

Spumigeri suis adventu validique leonis 985

Atque intempesta cedebant nocte paventes

Hospitibus saevis instrata cubilia fronde.

Nec nimio tum plus quam nunc mortalia saecla
Dulcia linquebant labentis lumina vitae.
Unus enim tum quisque magis deprensus eorum 990

Pabula viva feris praebebat, dentihus haustus,
Et nemora ac montes gemitu silvasque replebat
Viva videns vivo sepeliri viscera busto.
At quos effugium servarat corpore adeso,
Posterius tremulas super ulcera taetra tenentes 995

Palmas horriferis accibant vocibus Orcum,
Donique eos vita privarant vermina saeva
Expertes opis, ignaros quid vohiera vellent.
At non multa virum sub signis miUa ducta
Una dies dabat exitio nec turbida ponti 1000

Aequora fligebant naves ad saxa virosque.
Hic temere incassum frustra mare saepe coortum
Saevibat leviterque minas ponebat inanes,
Nec poterat quemquam placidi pellacia ponti r
Subdola pelUcere in fraudem ridentibus undis, 1005

Improba naucleri ratio cum caeca iacebat^_^
Tum penuria deinde cibi languentia leto
Membra dabat, contra nunc rerum copia mersat.
lUi inprudentes ipsi sibi saepe venenum
Vergebant, medici nunc dant soUertius usi. roio

Inde casas postquam ac pelles ignemque pararunt,
Et muUer coniuncta viro concessit in unum
Hospitmm, ac lecti socialia iura duobus
Cognita sunt, prolemque ex se videre creatam,
Tum genus humanum primum moUescere coepit.
Ignis enim curavit ut alsia corpora frigus 10 15

32 DE RERUM NATURA

Non ita iam possent caeli sub tegmine ferre,

Et Venus inminuit vires puerique parentum

Blanditiis facile ingenium fregere superbum.

Tunc et amicitiem coeperunt iungere aventes

Finitimi inter se nec laedere nec violari, 1020

Et pueros commendarunt muliebreque saeclum,

Vocibus et gestu cum balbe significarent

Imbecillorum esse aequum misererrer omnes.

Nec tamen omnimodis poterat concordia gigni,

Sed bona magnaque pars servabat foedera c'aste ; 1025

Aut genus humanum iam tum foret omne peremptum

Nec potuisset adhuc perducere saecla propago.

At varios linguae sonitus natura subegit
Mittere et utiHtas expressit nomina rerum,
Non aha longe ratione atque ipsa videtur 1030

Protrahere ad gestum pueros infantia Hnguae,
Cum facit ut digito quae sint praesentia monstrent.
Sentit enim vim quisque suam quoad possit abuti.
Cornua nata prius vitulo quam frontibus extent,
Ilhs iiatus petit atque infestus inurget. 1035

At catuh pantherarum scymnique leonum
Unguibus ac pedibus iam tum morsuque repugnant,
Vix etiam cum sunt dentes unguesque creati.
Ahtuum porro genus aHs omne videmus
Fidere et a pinnis tremulum petere auxihatum, 1040

Proinde putare aHquem tum nomina distribuisse
Rebus et inde homines didicisse vocabula prima,
Desiperest. Nam cur hic posset cuncta notare
Vocibus et varios sonitus emittere Hnguae,
Tempore eodem ahi facere id non quisse putentur? 1045
Praeterea si non aHi quocjue vocibus usi
Inter se fuerant, unde insita notities est
UtiHtatis et unde data est huic prima potestas,

LIBER QUINTUS. 33

Quid vellet facere ut sciret animoque videret?

Cogere item plures unus victosque domare 1050

Non poterat; rerum ut perdiscere nomina vellent.

Nec ratione docere uUa suadereque surdis,

Quid sit opus facto, facilest; neque enim paterentur

Nec ratione uUa sibi ferrent amplius aures

Vocis inauditos sonitus obtundere frustra. 1055

Postremo quid in hac mirabile tantoperest re,

Si genus humanum, cui vox et hngua vigeret,

Pro vario sensu varia res voce notaret?

Cum pecudes mutae, cum denique saecla ferarum

Dissimiles soleant voces variasque ciere, 1060

Cum metus aut dolor est et cum iam gaudia gliscunt.

Quippe etenim Hcet id rebus cognoscere apertis.

Inritata canum cum primutii magna Molossum

Mollia ricta fremunt duros nudantia dentes,

Longe alio sonitu rabie restricta minantur, 1065

Et cum iam latrant et vocibus omnia complent.

Et catulos blande cum lingua lambere temptant

Aut ubi eos iactant pedibus morsuque petentes

Suspensis teneros imitantur dentibus haustus,

Longe alio pacto gannitu vocis adulant, 1070

Et cum deserti baubantur in aedibus aut cum

Plorantes fugiunt summisso corpore plagas.

Denique non hinnitus item difFerre videtur,

Inter equas ubi equus florenti aetate iuvencus

Pinnigeri saevit calcaribus ictus amoris, 1075

Et fremitum patuHs ubi naribus edit ad arma,

Et cum sic ahas concussis artibus hinnit?

Postremo genus alituum variaeque volucrps,

Accipitres atque ossifragae mergique marinis

Fluctibus in salso victum vitamque petentes, 1080

Longe alias aUo iaciunt in tempore voces,

5—2

34 DE RERUM NATURA

Et quom de victu certant praedaeque repugnant.

Et partim mutant cum tempestatibus una

Raucisonos cantus, cornicum ut saecla vetusta

Corvorumque greges ubi aquam dicuntur et imbres 1085

Poscere et interdum ventos aurasque vocare.

Ergo si varii sensus animalia cogunt,

Muta tamen cum sint, varias emittere voces,

Quanto mortales magis aequumst tum potuisse

Dissimiles alia atque alia res voce notare ! 1090

Illud in his rebus tacitus ne forte requiras,
Fulmen detulit in terram mortalibus igne'rii
Primitus, inde omnis flammarum diditur ardor.
Multa videmus enim caelestibus inlita flammis
Fulgere, cum caeli donavit plaga vapore. io95

Et ramosa tamen cum ventis pulsa vacillans
Aestuat in ramos incumbens arboris arbdr,
Exprimitur validis extritus viribus ignis
Et micat interdum flammai fervidus ^rdor,
Mutua dum inter se rami stirpesque teruntur. 11 00

Quorum utrumque dedisse potest mortalibus ignem.
Inde cibum coquere ac flammae mollire vap6re
Sol docuit, quoniam mitescere multa videbant
Verberibus radiorum atque aestu victa per agros.

Inque dies magis hi victum vitamque priorem 1105
Commutare novis monstrabant rebu' benigni,
Ingenio qui praestabant et corde vigebant.
Condere coeperunt urbes arcemque locare
Praesidium reges ipsi sibi perfugiumque,
Et pecus atque agros divisere atque dedere iiio

Pro facie cuiusque et viribus ingenioque ;
Nam facies multum valuit viresque vigentes.
Fosterius res inventast aurumque repertum,
Quod facile et vahdis et pulchris dempsit honorem;

LIBER QUINTUS. 35

Divitioris enim sectam plerumque sequuntur mS

Quamlubet et fortes et pulchro corpore creti.

Quod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet,

Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce

Aequo animo ; neque enim est umquam penuria parvi.

At claros homines voluerunt se atque potentes, 1120

Ut fundamento stabiU fortuna maneret

Et placidam possent opulenti degere vitam;

Nequiquam, quoniam ad summum succedere honorem

Certantes iter infestum fecere viai,

Et tamen e summo, quasi fulmen, deicit ictos 1125

Invidia interdum contemptim in Tartara taetra;

Invidia quoniam, ceu fulmine, surama vaporant

Plerumque et quae sunt aUis magis edita cumque;

Ut satius multo iam sit parere quietum

Quam regere imperio res velle et regna tenere. 11 30

Proinde sine incassum defessi sanguine sudent,

Angustum per iter hictantes ambitionis ;

Quandoquidem sapiunt aUeno ex ore petuntque

Res ex auditis potius quam sensibus ipsis,

Nec magis id nunc est neque erit mox quam fuit ante. 1135

Ergo regibus occisis subversa iacebat
Pristina maiestas soUorum et sceptra superba,
Et capitis summi praeclarum insigne cruentum
Sub pedibus vulgi magnum lugebat honorem ;
Nam cupide conculcatur nimis ante metutum. 11 40

Res itaque ad summam faecem turbasque redibat,
Imperium sibi cum ac summatum quisque petebat.
Inde magistratum partim docuere creare
luraque constituere, ut veUent legibus uti.
Nam genus humanum, defessum vi colere aevom, 1145
Ex inimicitns languebat; quo magis ipsum
Sponte sua cecidit sub leges artaque iura.

36 DE RERUM NATURA

Acrius ex ira quod enim se quisque parabat

Ulcisci quam nunc concessumst legibus aequis,

Hanc ob rem est homines pertaesum vi colere aevom. 1150

Inde metus maculat poenarum praemia vitae.

Circumretit enim vis atque iniuria quemque

Atque, unde exortast, ad eum plerumque rev^rtit,

Nec facilest placidam ac pacatam degere vitam

Qui violat factis communia foedera pacis. ii55

Etsi fallit enim divom genus humanumque,

Perpetuo tamen id fore clam diffidere debet;

Quippe ubi se multi per somnia saepe loquentes

Aut morbo delirantes protraxe ferantur-ft.- ^*', o.-^vt^^-'^

Et celata mala in medium et peccata dedisse. 1160

Nunc quae causa deum per magnas numina gentes
Pervulgarit et ararum compleverit urbes
Suscipiendaque curarit sollemnia sacra,
Quae nunc in magnis florent sacra rebu' locisque,
Uiiide etiam nunc est mortalibus insitus horror 11 65

Qui delubra deum nova toto suscitat orbi
Terrarum et festis cogit celebrare diebus,
Non ita difficilest rationem reddere verbis.
Quippe etenim iam tum divum mortaha saecla
Egregias animo facies vigilante videbant 11 70

Et magis in somnis mirando corporis auctu.
His igitur sensum tribuebant propterea quod
Membra movere videbantur vocesque superbas
Mittere pro facie praeclara et viribus amplis.
Aeternamque dabant vitam, quia semper eorum 11 75

Suppeditabatur facies et forma manebat,
Et tamen omnino quod tantis viribus auctos
Non temere ulla vi convinci posse putabant.
Fortunisque ideo longe praestare putabant,
Quod mortis timor haud quemquam vexaret eorum, iiSo

LIBER QUINTUS. 37

Et simul in somnis quia multa et mira videbant

Efficere et nuUum capere ipsos inde laborem.

Praeterea caeli rationes ordine certo

Et varia annorum cernebant tempora verti

Nec poterant quibus id fieret cognoscere causis. 1185

Ergo perfugium sibi habebant omnia divis

Tradere et illorum nutu facere omnia flecti.

In caeloque deum sedes et templa locarunt,

Per caelum volvi quia nox et luna videtur,

Luna dies et nox et noctis signa severa 11 90

Noctivagaeque faces caeli flammaeque volantes,

Nubila sol imbres nix venti fulmina grando

Et rapidi fremitus et murmura magna minarum.

O genus infelix humanum, taHa divis
Cum tribuit facta atque iras adiunxit acerbas ! 1195

Quantos tum gemitus ipsi sibi, quantaque nobis
Volnera, quas lacrimas peperere minoribu' nostris !
Nec pietas ullast velatum saepe videri
Vertier ad lapidem atque omnes accedere ad aras
Nec procumbere humi prostratum et pandere pahiias 1200
Ante deum delubra nec aras sanguine muho
Spargere quadrupedum nec votis nectere vota,
Sed mage pacata posse omnia mente tueri.
Nam cum suspicimus magni caelestia mundi
Templa, super steUisque micantibus aethera fixum, 1205
Et venit in mentem soHs lunaeque viarum,
Tunc ahis oppressa maHs in pectora cura
lUa quoque expergefactum caput erigere infit,
Nequae forte deum nobis inmensa potestas
Sit, vario motu quae candida sidera verset. 12 10

Temptat enim dubiam mentem rationis egestas,
Ecquaenam fuerit mundi genitaHs origo,
Et simul ecquae sit finis, quoad moenia mundi

38 DE RERUM NATURA

SoUiciti motus hunc possint ferre laborem,

An divinitus aeterna donata salute 12 15

Perpetuo possint aevi labentia tractu

Inmensi validas aevi contemnere vires.

Praeterea cui non animus formidine divum

Contrahitur, cui non correpunt membra pavore,

Fulminis horribili cum plaga torrida tellus 1220

Contremit et magnum percurrunt murmura caelum?

Non popuh gentesque tremunt, regesque superbi

Corripiunt divum percussi membra timore,

Nequid ob admissum foede dictumve superbe

Poenarum grave sit solvendi tempus adultum? 1225

Summa etiam cum vis violenti per raare venti

Induperatorem classis super aequora verrit

Cum vahdis pariter legionibus atque elephantis,

Non divum pacem votis adit ac prece quaesit

Ventorum pavidus paces animasque secundas? 1-3°

Nequiquam, quoniam violento turbine saepe

Correptus nilo fertur minus ad vada leti.

Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam

Obterit et pulchros fasces saevasque secures

Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur. 1235

Denique sub pedibus tellus cum tota vacillat

Concussaeque cadunt urbes dubiaeque minantur,

Quid mirum si se temnunt mortaUa saecla

Atque potestates magnas mirasque reUnquunt

In rebus vires divum, quae cuncta gubernent? ^ 1240

Quod superest, aes atque aurum ferrumque repertumst
Et simul argenti pondus plumbique potestas,
Ignis ubi ingentes silvas ardore cremarat
Montibus in magnis, seu caeh fulmine misso,
Sive quod inter se bellum silvestre gerentes 1245

Hostibus intulerant ignem formidinis ergo.

LIBER QUINTUS. 39

Sive quod inducti terrae bonitate volebant

Pandere agros pingues et pascua reddere rura,

Sive feras interficere et ditescere praeda.

Nam fovea atque igni prius est venarier ortum 1250

Quam saepire plagis saltum canibusque ciere.

Quidquid id est, quacumque e causa flammeus ardor

Horribili sonitu silvas exederat altis

Ab radicibus et terram percoxerat igni,

Manabat venis ferventibus in loca terrae 1255

Concava conveniens argenti rivus et auri,

Aeris item et plumbi. Quae cum concreta videbant

Posterius claro in terra splendere colore,

Tollebant nitido capti levique lepore,

Et simili^^formata videbant esse figura 1260

Atque lacunarum fuerant vestigia cuique.

Tum penetrabat eos posse haec liquefacta calore

Quamlibet in formam et faciem decurrere rerum

Et prorsum quamvis in acuta ac tenuia posse

Mucronum duci fastigia procudendo, 1265

Ut sibi tela darent, silvasque ut caedere possent

Materiemque dolare et levia radere tigna

Et terebrare etiam ac pertundere perque forare.

Nec minus argento facere haec auroque parabant

Quam vaHdi primum violentis viribus aeris; 1270

Nequiquam, quoniam cedebat victa potestas

Nec poterat pariter durum sufiferre laborem.

Tum fuit in pretio magis aes aurumque iacebat

Propter inutiUtatem hebeti mucrone retusum.

Nunc iacet aes, aurum in summum successit honorem. 1275

Sic volvenda aetas commutat tempora rerum.

Quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore;

Porro aliud succedit et e contemptibus exit

Inque dies magis adpetitur floretque repertum

40 DE RERUM NATURA

Laudibus et miro est mortales inter honore. 1280

Nunc tibi quo pacto ferri natura reperta
Sit facilest ipsi per te cognoscere, MemmL
Arma antiqua manus ungueS dentesque fuerunt
Et lapides et item silvarum fragmina rami,
Et flamma atque ignes, postquam sunt cognita primum. 1 2S5
Posterius ferri vis est aerisque reperta.
Et prior aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus,
Quo facilis magis est natura et copia maior.
Aere solum terrae tractabant, aereque belli
Miscebant fluctus et vulnera vasta serebant 1290

Et pecus atque agros adimebant ; nam facile ollis
Omnia cedebant armatis nuda et inerma.
Inde minutatim processit ferreus ensis
Versaque in opprobrium species est falcis aenae,
Et ferro coepere solum proscindere terrae 1295

Exaequataque sunt creperi certamina belli.
Et prius est armatum in equi conscendere costas
Et moderarier hunc frenis dextraque vigere
Quam biiugo curru belli temptare pericla.
Et biiugos prius est quam bis coniungere binos 1300
Et quam falciferos armatum escendere currus.
Inde boves Lucas turrito corpore, taetras,
Anguimanus, belU docuerunt volnera Poeni
Sufferre et magnas Martis turbare catervas.
Sic alid ex aUo peperit discordia tristis, 1305

Horribile humanis quod gentibus esset in armis,
Inque dies beUi terroribus addidit augmen.

Temptarunt etiam tauros in munere beUi
Expertique sues saevos sunt mittere in hostes.
Et vaUdos partim prae se raisere leones 13 10

Cum doctoribus armatis saevisque magistris
Qui moderarier his possent vincUsque tenere;

LIBER QUINTUS. 41

Nequiquam, quoniam permixta caede calentes

Turbabant saevi nullo discrimine turmas,

Terrificas capitum quatientes undique cristas, 13 15

Nec poterant equites fremitu perterrita equorum

Pectora mulcere et firenis convertere in hostes.

Inritata leae iaciebant corpora saltu

Undique et adversum venientibus ora petebant

Et nec opinantes a tergo deripiebant 1320

Deplexaeque dabant in terram volnere victos,

Morsibus adfixae validis atque uiguibus uncis.

lactabantque suos tauri pedibusque terebant

Et latera ac ventres hauribant subter equorum "'

Cornibus et terram minitanti fronte ruebant. 1325

Et validis socios caedebant dentibus apri

Tela infracta suo tinguentes sanguine saevi,

In se fracta suo tinguentes sanguine tela,

Permixtasque dabant equitum peditumque ruinas.

Nam transversa feros exibant dentis adactus " 1330

lumenta aut pedibus ventos erecta petebant ;

Nequiquam, quoniam ab nervis succisa videres I^^V^'

Concidere atque gravi terram consternere casu.

Siquos ante domi domitos satis esse putabant,

Effervescere cemebant in rebus agundis'^^^ '"'■'• "^' '^ZTtS

Volneribus clamore fuga terrore tumultu,

Nec poterant uUam partem redducere eorum ; ':<,

Diffugiebat enim varium genus omne ferarum ;

Ut nunc saepe boves Lucae ferro male mactae

Diffugiunt, fera facta suis cum multa dedere. 1340

Sed facere id non tam vincendi spe voluerunt,

Quam dare quod gemerent hostes, ipsique perire,

Qui niimero diffidebant armisque vacabant.

Nexilis ante fuit vestis quam textile tegmen. 1350

Textile post ferrumst, quia ferro tela paratur,

42 DE RERUM NATURA

Nec ratione alia possunt tam levia gigni

Insilia ac fusi, radii scapique sonantes.

Et facere ante viros lanam natura coegit

Quam muliebre genus; nam longe praestat in arte 1355

Et soUertius est multo genus omne virile ;

Agricolae donec vitio vertere severi,

Ut muliebribus id manibus concedere vellent

Atque ipsi pariter durum suflferre laborem

Atque opere in duro durarent membra manusque. 1360

At specimen sationis et insitionis origo
Ipsa fuit rerum primum natura creatrix,
Arboribus quoniam bacae glandesque caducae
Tempestiva dabant puUorum examina subter ;
Unde etiam libitumststirpes committere ramis 1365

Et nova defodere in terram virgulta per agros.
Inde aliam atque aliam culturam dulcis agelli
Temptabant fructusque feros mansuescere terram
Cemebant indulgeado blandeque colendo.
Inque dies magis in montem succedere silvas 1370

Cogebant infraque locum concedere cultis,
Prata lacus rivos segetes vinetaque laeta
CoUibus et campis ut haberent, atque olearum
Caerula distinguens inter plaga currere posset
Per tumulos et convalles camposque profusa ; 1375

Ut nunc esse vides vario distincta lepore
Omnia, quae pomis intersita dulcibus ornant
Arbustisque tenent fclicibus obsita circum.

At liquidas avium voces imitarier ore
Ante fuit multo quam levia carmina cantu 13S0

Concelebrare homines possent auresque iuvare.
Et zephyri, cava per calamorum, sibila primuni
Agrestes docuere cavas inflare cicutas.
Inde minutatim dulces didicere querellas,

LIBER QUJNTUS. 43

Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum, 1385

Avia per nemora ac silvas saltusque reperta,

Per loca pastorum deserta atque otia dia.

Haec animos oUis mulcebant atque iuvabant 1390

Cum satiate cibi; nam tum haec sunt omnia cordi.

Saepe itaque inter se prostrati in gramine moUi

Propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae

Non magnis opibus iucunde corpora habebant,

Praesertim cum tempestas ridebat et anni i395

Tempora pingebant viridantes floribus herbas.

Tum ioca, tum sermo, tum dulces esse cachinni

Consuerant. Agrestis enim tum musa vigebat ;

Tum caput atque umeros plexis redimire coronis

Floribus et foUis lascivia laeta monebat, 1400

Atque extra humerum procedere membra moventes

Duriter et duro terram pede pellere matrem ;

Unde oriebantur risus dulcesque cachinni,

Omnia quod nova tum magis haec et mira vigebant.

Et vigilantibus hinc aderant solacia somni, 1405

Ducere multimodis voces et flectere cantus

Et supera calamos unco percurrere labro ;

Unde etiam vigiles nunc haec accepta tuentur

Et numerum servare recens didicere, neque hilo

Maiorem interea capiunt dulcedini' fructum 1410

Quara silvestre genus capiebat terrigenarum.

Nam quod adest praesto, nisi quid cognovimus ante

Suavius, in primis placet et poUere videtur,

Posteriorque fere meHor res illa reperta

Perdit et immutat sensus ad pristina quaeque. 1415

Sic odium coepit glandis, sic illa reUcta

Strata cubilia sunt herbis et frondibus aucta.

PeUis item cecidit vestis contempta ferinae ;

44 l^E RERUM NATURA

Quam reor invidia tali tunc esse repertam,

Ut letuni insidiis qui gessit primus obiret, 1420

Et tamen inter eos distractam sanguine multo

Disperiisse neque in fructum convertere quisse.

Tunc igitur pelles, nunc aurum et purpura curis

Exercent hominum vitam belloque fatigant;

Quo magis in nobis, ut opinor, culpa resedit. 1425

Frigus enim nudos sine pellibus excruciabat

Terrigenas; at nos nil laedit veste carere

Purpurea atque auro signisque ingentibus apta,

Dum plebeia tamen sit quae defendere possit.

Ergo hominum genus incassum frustraque laborat 1430

Semper et in curis consumit inanibus aevum,

Nimirum quia non cognovit quae sit habendi

Finis et omnino quoad crescat vera voluptas.

Idque minutalim vitam provexit in altum

Et belli magnos commovit funditus aestus. i435

At vigiles mundi magnum ac versatile templum
Sol et luna suo lustrantes lumine circum
Perdocuere homines annorum tempora verti
Et certa ratione geri rem atque ordine certo.

lam validis saepti degebant turribus aevum 1440

Et divisa colebatur discretaque tellus,
lam mare velivolis florebat puppibus; urbes
Auxiha ac socios iam pacto foedere habebant,
Carminibus cum res gestas coepere poetae
Tradere; nec multo priu' sunt elementa repe.rta. 1445
Propterea quid sit prius actum respicere aetas
Nostra nequit, nisi qua ratio vestigia monstrat.

Navigia atque agri culturas moenia leges
Arma vias vestes et cetera de genere horum,
Praemia, delicias quoque vitae funditus omnes, 1450

LIBER QUINTUS. 45

Carmina picturas, et daedala signa polire,

Usus et impigrae simul experientia mentis

Paulatim docuit pedetemptim progredientes.

Sic unumquicquid paulatim protrahit aetas

In medium ratioque in luminis erigit oras. 1455

Namque alid ex alio clarescere et ordine debet

Artibus, ad summum donec venere cacumen.

NOTES.

D.

NOTES.

I — 54. No one can worthily praise Epicurus, the founJer of this
philosophy. The benefits he conferred on men are greater than those
conferred by gods, such as Ceres and Bacchus, or by demigods,
stcch as Hercules ; because peace of mind is more important than
external comfort or safety.

1. potis is an indeclinable adj. ; quid potis est, 1. 560 ; pote, which
also occurs, is not the neuter, but a weakened form, as mage is of
magis, amabere of amaberis.

dignum...pro : the simple abl. is more usual after digttus; but
comp. Hor. Ep. i 7 24 dignum pro laude.

pectore, ' genius ' ; again in 1. 5 pectus is the seat of intellect, in 11. 18
and 43 that of moral qualities.

2. repertis, ' discoveries ' ; often used as a noun by Lucr.

4. eius, i.e. Epictiri ; see Introduction p. xiv ; Lucr. reverences his
master so much that he generally avoids mentioning his name ; it only
occurs once in the whole poem, iii 1042.

possit: consec. subj., as qui=ut is.

5. quaesita, ' acquired ' rather than ' sought ' ; see 1. ■213.
praemia, ' prizes ', ' valuable things'. liquit, ' bequeathed '.

6. cretus is the perf. partic. of cresco, used as if cresco were
deponent ; comp. adultus from adolesco. Similar phrases occur in 11.
60, 1116 ; also in Ovid and Virgil.

7. si, ut ipsa : si is not elided (this is called hiatus) and the
syllable is shortened ; so 1. 74 qui in orbi. This hiatus is very common
in Plautus and Terence and is even found in Horace {sime amas inquit)
and Virgil (te amice nequivi). petit is intransitive.

8. Virg. Ecl. V 64 deus, deus ille, Menalca.

Memmi: Gaius Memmius, a Roman aristocrat to whom the whole
poern of Lucr. is addressed. It seems probable that he was unworthy

6—2

48 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

of such an honour : Catullus, who was a meniber of his staff, whcn he
was propraetor in Bithynia, always speaks of him with contempt and
dislike. His name occurs five times in this book.

9. princeps=primus ; again, i 94.

rationem, 'plan' : a word often used by Lucr., and with different
meanings, such as ' reason', ' reasoning', 'system', 'law', 'opinion'.

10. sapietitia, ' wisdom ' or ' philosophy '. Lucr. will not allow
this name to any system previous to that of Epicurus.

12. traitquillo: neut. adj. used as noun. Human life is compared
to a ship at sea. Notice the alliteration in this beautiful line.

13. f«zw is argumentative, ' if you doubt it', used like i-Tei with
imperative, for which see Aristoph. Wasps 73, 519, Soph. El. 352.

divina . . .antiqua : such double epithets without copula are constantly
used by Lucr. : e.g. 1. 24 IVemeaeus magnus.

14. namque, ' for instance'. Ceres corresponds to the Greek
Demeter, Liber to Bacchus.

15. instituisse, ' to have revealed ' ; KariSei^e has the same meaning.
Though the Augustan poets generally end a hexameter with a word
of two or three syllables, Lucr. often has words of one, four, and five in
this position.

18. poterat '\?, impersonal. benevivi, 'happiness'; in prose, beata
vita ; comp. Hor. Ep. i 1 1 28 navibtis atque quadrigis petimus bene
vivere. puro pectore: comp. our phrase, ' to make a clean breast of it '.

ig. merito goes with videtur.

20. ex quo = ex quo orta.

magnas : conventional epithet of ^(.'«to ; again 1. 1161.

21. vitae: possessive gen.

22. Hercules was the ancient type of strength and valour and won
a place in heaven by these qualities.

antistare, sc. factis Epicuri : Catulhis (ix 3) speaks of a friend as
antistans mihi milibus trecentis ' worth more than 300,000 others'.
The word is rare in later writers.

23. ratione, ' o^pmion' .

24. Nemeaeus: constr. as if it were N^emeaei agreeing with lconis,
and comp. Virgil's Tyrrhenusque tubae clangor, The argument is :
even if Hercules had not killed all these wild beasts, we should not be
worse off now. Eight of the twelve labours of Hercules are here
mentioned.

25. obcsset : the protasis, si viveret, is understood.

NOTES. 49

26. denique, 'besides' rather than 'lastly', as often in Lucr.
2 7 . posset = valeret.

28. Geryon was the three-headed king of Hesperia whom Hercules
conquered; Martial (v 65 11) calls \i\-n\ pastor Pliberits.

The line in italics was written by Munro to lill the place of a lost
line of the original.

volucres are the Harpies which ate human flesh and used their
brazen feathers as arrows, as it was once believed that the porcupine
used its quills. They lived near lake Stymphalus in Arcadia and are
therefore sometimes called Stymphalides.

29. tanto opere, ' so much ', is usually written as one word ; see I.
1056.

30. Virg. Georg. ii 140 tauri spirantcs naribus ignem.

31. Thracis: epithet of Diomedes king of Thrace, to distinguish
him from his namesake, the son of Tydeus who fought against Troy.
Ismara, or Ismarus, is a mountain on the coast of Thrace ; the Bistones
were a Thracian people, and the Roman poets often use their name as
= Thracian.

pj-opter with this meaning often comes after ihe word it governs ;
see 11. 623, 738 ; but, 11. 35, 1393, it comes before it.

32. aurea...ftilgentia: see n. to 1. 13.

The Hesperides were fabulous women who guarded the golden
apples somewhere in the west ; hence their name.

33. acerba : adverbial use of adj. common in all Latin poets; Virg.
Aen. ix 794 asper, acerba tuens; the sing. adj. is commoner than the plur.

34. qtiid denique, ' what possible harm ', like q/iid tandem in 1. 38 ;
comp. Hor. Sat. i 4 80 quis detiiqtie ?

35. Atlanteum : in these western parts the giant Atlas was believed
to stand, supporting the burden of the sky on his shoulders.

pelage : Greek form of plural ; so Lucr. also uses mele, ' songs '.

36. noster would be nostras, -atis, in prose. barbarus is used by
Lucr. 2&=peregrinus, but by Plautus, translating from Greek originals,
2i% = Romanus ; so, Mostell. 628, pidtifagus barbarus is 'a porridge-
eating Roman \puls being the old national food.

37. cetera de genere hoc is found in Horace, Sat. i i 13.

38. viva contains a second protasis, si viverent.

39. ita, ' for ', qualifies the whole sentence, as very often in Plautus.
satiatem is used because satietatem cannot be got into the verse.

40. scatit : from scatere, a less common form than scatcre ; so Lucr.

50 LUCRETJUS. BOOK V.

xxsfi fervere SLnd fulgere. It here takes a gen., instead of the usual abl.,
as if scatit were —plena est.

terrore : in this sense Martial twice calls the Nemean lion terror
Nemees.

42. est nostra potestas: lit. ' there is power belonging to us ', i.e.
'we have the power '.

43. purgatitinst : ihe enclitic est is common in Lucr. and earlier
writers ; so tumst just below.

quae proelia etc. : ' what battles and dangers must then find their
way into us'. Here, as often, Lucr. uses the active gerund instead of
the passive gerundive ; for insinuare is here an active verb. Comp. i 1 1 1
aeternas quoniatn poenas in morte timendumst ; this construction was
dropped by later writers, though it was always kept in Greek, <h<pe\r]Tioi'
TTjv ir6\iv being as good as <h<p€\7)Tia 7} 7r6X(s.

44. ingratis is contracted from ingratiis and used adverbially.

45. cuppedinis = cupiditatis ', an archaic word.

47. superbid spurcitia : the a is left short before sp ; see 1. 79 ; the
Augustan poets avoid placing a short vowel before sp, sc, st.

spurcitia, ' impurity ' ; petidantia, ' brutal violence '.

48. desidiae, ' different forms of sloth '.

49. subegerit is perf. subj., qui he.mg = cu>n is; comp. cum suerit
just below.

51. dignarier, the archaic form of dignari, is here passive, and
followed by the inf. esse.

53. immortalibiC : in pre-Augustan poets the final s is often ignored
in short syllables. stierit is contracted from siieverit, Epicurus wrote
a book 7re/)i Qedv.

54. The ' nature of things ' is here what we call ' natural science ' ;
it can have a wider meaning ; see 1. 199.

55 — 90. Folloxving Epicurus T point out the absolute reign of la7v in
the natural world ; and, as I have already proved that the tnind of
man is mortal, so I %vill now prove that the world too tnust sotne day
come to ati etid. I will also describe the birth-time ofthe world, attd
above all the ttiotions of the heavenly bodies, as it is mainly owing to
our ignorance ofthcse that superstition has so strong a hold upon tts.

55 — 75. This long sentence may be split up into three, in trans-
lating, of four, five, and twelve lines. In this case dum must not be
translated.

NOTES. 51

55. raiiones, ' reasonings '.

56. The order is : doceo qiiani sit necessum quaeque durare in eo
foedere quo creata sint.

57. durare, 'to remain ' ; but, 1. 1360, 'to harden'.

58. nec, i.e. quaniqtte non, still after doceo.

59. quo genere etc. : ' herein it has been found above all that the
nature of the mind '. in primis...priniuni is very emphatic. In Lucr.
aninnis always is the mind or reason (\670s), anima the soul or life
{■^vxh)- He is referring to his third book where he has proved this point
at great length. See Introduct. p. xxiii. animi natura is merely a
periphrasis for animus, like nnmdi natura for nnindus; both occur
frequently; see 11. 127, 132, 157, 239, 331, 365, 370, 834.

60. nativo, ' that had birth'. Lucr. uses nativus 2iS = niortalis and
opposed to aeternus ; so ^evTjr^s is often opposed to diStos.

corpore creta : see n. to cretus, 1. 6.

62. solere: the acc. and inf. as \i reperta in 1. 59 were repertum.
He means to say that appearances of dead men in our dreams are

mere delusions and do nothing to prove the immortality of the soul.

63. videamur: the subj. here and in 1. 681 seems to denote
frequency, though regularly quoties hoc fit=-0Ta.v tovto ylyvTjrai ; probably
the subj. is due to the semblance of oratio obliqua.

64. quod superest, lit. ' as to what remains ', i.e. ' to continue'; a
common formula of transition.

rationis, ' of my plan '. detuUt, sc. me.

67. congressus matei'iai, ' union of matter ', formed by the ceaseless
strife and coUision of atoms described in the second book.

68. fundarit: indirect question after ratio reddunda sit; so also
extiterint, sint natae, coeperit, insinuarit below,

69. lunai : Lucr. uses this archaic form and that in -ae (see 1. 76)
indifferently as suits his verse. tellnre, ' from the earth '.

anitnantes = animalia : see n. to 1. 823.

70. Part of his plan is to disprove the existence of such fabulous
creatures as Centaurs and Chimeras ; see 11. 878 foU.

71. quove : ve is for que, as the origin of speech is not an alter-
native but an additional topic : also 1. 776. Munro thinks ihis
licence may be due to the ambiginty of quoque which might be a part
of quisque.

72. vesci^uti: rather different in 1. 857. per, 'in', ' in the way
of ' ; so per iocuni.

52 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

73. ille is often used by Lucr. to express vividly admiration or, as
here, contempt.

divom metus, dei(n5aifwvia, is the main cause of human misery, ac-
cording to Lucr. ; and to banish it is the sole aim of the study of nature.

insinuarit is here intrans., though not in 1. 44 ; the itt of the verb
governs pectora.

74. qui in : for the hiatus see n. to 1. 7. orbi is the archaic abl. ;
again, 1. 707. Lucr. uses also igni, luci, parti, labi, in this book.
sancta and tuetur are to be taken together.

75. lactis are often coupled with liici as holy places.

77. natura gubertians, ' piloting nature ' ; another metaphor from
a ship. Comp. 1. 107, from which it appears that natura and fortiina
are identical.

79. liberd : see n. to 1. 47. cursus : intemal acc. after lustrare.

80. morigera, ' obliging enough ' ; sarcastic. animantes : see n. to
1. 823.

81. ratione, ' forethought ', Trpovoia.

82. qui, 'even those who'. Part of the I. is quoted by Horace,
Sat. i 5 loi deos didici sectirum agere aevttm.

83. interea, ' notwithstanding ' ; again 1. 394, Lucr. often uses
eodent tempore in the same sense : see 11. 756, 765. ratione = modo.

85. aetheriis in oris, 'in the regions of aether'. In Lucr. aetker
is always the higher, unclouded sky, aer the lower abode of storms and
clouds : see 11. 500 — 504. orae luminis, 'the regions of light', i.e. the
world, is a favourite phrase of Lucr.

87. dominos cures, i.e. the gods ; they are called domitii stiperhi,
ii 109 1.

89. finita etc. : 'in short on what principle each thing has its
power defined and its deep-set boundary mark'. With terininiis, sc.
finittis sit. The metaphor is from a land-mark dividing two properties;
here the termintts divides for each thing the possible from the im-
possible.

90. sit belongs to fiitita above ; Lucr. likes to keep separate the
parts of these compound tenses; see 11. 177, 546, 583, 858, 1225,
1416.

91 — 109. To proceed to the demonstration I have promised, it is ctrtain,
haivever astonishing it vtay soiind, that the whole worldwill one day
be destroyed. Yoti yotirself may live to see it.

NOTES. 53

91. quod superest'. see n. to 1. 64. plura: adverbial use of
adjective ; so acerba 1. 33.

93. Memmi: see n. to 1. 8. Here the personal appeal invites
special attention.

94. species = dS-q, 'things so unlike in appearance'; 1. 569, species=
• our sight '.

95. Ovid (Am. i 15 23) quotes from this line to pay a fine compli-
ment to its author :

carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti,
exitio terras cum dabit una dies.

96. ruet, ' will go to ruin'; ruere is also transitive sometimes in
Lucr., e.g. 1. 1325.

moles et machina, 'mass and fabric'; moles suggests size, machina
complexity.

97. animi, 'in my mind', a locative like hiimi, ruri, domi; common
also with adjectives like dubius, aeger. fallit is impersonal.

res nova miraque : constr. as if it were tiovum mirumque ; exitium
futurum is the subject to accidat.

99. id \s object io pervincere.

100. fit-=soletfieri. ubi rem adportes = ubi res adportatur; but the
Latin idiom requires the subj. in the second person, e.g. bonus segniorft
ubi neglegas (Sallust). We say 'when one brings'. ante is an adverb
and goes with insolitam.

loi. visu is contracted from visui.

102. indu and endo are archaic forms of the prep. in; the d
survives in indigeo, compound of egeo. Lucr. uses indugredi, indupedire,
induperator, the last for metrical reasons, though the verbs can be
separated by tmesis from their prepositions, e.g. inque pedire.

via qua etc. : ' where a beaten path of conviction leads most directly'.
The meaning is: anything which appeals to sight or touch is readily
believed ; just so Horace, A. P. 180 segnitts inj-itant ani?nos detnissa per
aurcm, qtiam quae sunt octilis subiecta fidelibus ; Tennyson, Enoch
Arden, 'things seen are mightier than things heard '.

103. templa mentis, 'quarters of the mind'; so Lucr., iv 624,
speaks of the raouth as linguai templa, Plautus, Mil. Glor. 412, of the
sea as Neptunia templa, iempla \i€mg = loca in old Latin.

104. dabitfidem: in ^xose faciet fidem,

106. in, ' in the course of '.

107. Comp. 1. 77.

54 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

108. ratio, 'reasoning'; res, 'the reality '.

109. succidere...victa: translate by two co-ordinale verbs. fragor
is defined by Seneca (Nat. Quaest. ii 27 3) as a sound subitus et
vehetnens.

iio — 234. The editors pointout that these lines interrupt the argu-
ment, which is to prove the precarious existence of the world, and are
out of place here. There are many such passages, especially in the
last two books ; they are rough drafts which Lucr. did not live long
enough to fit properly into his text. A number of the verses are copied
frora his earlier books.

iio — 145. You nmst not think it profane to deny the divinity and
permanence of the external world. The mind cannot exist outside
the body ; indeed it can exist only in one special part of the body
itself. Tha-efore earth, fre, water, and air cannot have life aud
conseqttcntly are not divine.

110. qua prius adgrediar quam de re=sed prius quam adgrediar
de hac re. fata, ' decrees of fate '.

114. tte — rearis: ne with the 2nd pers. of the pres. subj. makes a
final clause, not a prohibition, always in Lucr. and generally in writers
of the best period ; in Greek the same rule is invariable. But Horace
at least once (Sat. ii 3 88) and very early and late poets (e.g. Plautus
and Martial) use nefacias zs> = 7iefeceris or nolifacere.

116. corpore divino: abl. of description.

117. putes: subj. after «^ 1. 114. Gigantum: they were punished
for their impious attack on heaven by being struck by thunderbolts or
imprisoned under mountains; Hor. Od. iii 4 73 iniecta monstris Terra
dolet suis.

119. disturbefit moenia tnundi, 'displace the walls of the workl',
i.e. by saying it must perish. disturbent and velint below are subj.,
because they are in dependent clauses of oratio obliqtta.

121. notantes, 'blaming'; used technically of the censors.

122. quae refers back to 1. 116, the last 5 11. being parenthetical,
and includes the things enumerated in 1. 115. The MSS. have distent
here and videri, not videntur, below ; this construction is so harsh that
I have admitted the conjecture of Madvig.

123. The order is: et videntur indigna quae sint . With indigna,
sc. usque adeo again.

124. notitiam, 'a notable instance'. putentur=putari possint.

NOTES. 55

l?5. quid sit^quale sit ilhid qiiod est.

126. quippe etenim recurs 11. 240, 449, 1062, 1169; the expression
is pleonastic, as both quippe and etenim mean ' for '.

non est ut putetur—non polest putari. esse, 'to exist'.

127. consilium, 'judgment'; a7ti??ii goes with cottsil. as well as
with natura ; for animi natura see n. to 1. 59.

131. quicquid=quidque, as often in Lucr. : see II. 264, 284, 304.
X33. longiter: so uniter 1. 537, duriter 1. 1402.
134. quod si, 'but if: quod is the conjunction, not the relative,
and is thus used also before nisi, contra, quoniatn (1. 138).
posset enim multo priiis, 'a much more likely supposition'.

137. tandem, 'after all'; a rare meaning; Plaut. Mil. Glor. 1053
nitnis vilest tattdem, ' after all it is very cheap '. atqiie, 'that is'.

138. quod: see n. to 1. 134. cotistat = est; again, 1. 144. quoque,
' even '.

139. videtur, ' is seen ' ; videri often requires, and usually can bear,
this meaning in Lucr.

140. sebrsian : two syllables by synizesis.
anima atque animus: see n. to 1. 59.

141. animalem: fem. adj. agreeing with_/^r/;/a;«.

142. igni: see n. to orbi, 1. 74.

143. As subject to a^wrflr^, %c. attitnam atque aniiniim; Lucr. denies
both these to the material elements of the world, differing from the Stoics
who maintained that the world had a soul.

aetheris oris: see n. to 1. 85.

144. As subject to constatit ( = sutit), sc. the things enumerated in
1. 115. divino sensu is equivalent to diviito coipore of 1. 116.

145. They have not even life ; much less are they divine.

146 — 194. The gods do not dwell in abodes whick we can see : their ahodes
are, like themselves, too subtle to be perceived by our senses. Nor did
the gods create the world for our sakes. They cotdd have tzo ttiotive
for doing so, as theirlife tiever admitted of any increase of happiness:
nor would they have knozvn how to do so, before tiature showed thetn
the zvay ; atoms, of thetnselves, after countless experiments, fell at
last into the positiotts necessary to tnake the world as we see it.

146. non est ut possis = tion potes; comp. 1. 126.

147. Epicurus taught that the gods dwelt in fj.€TaK6afx,ia, 'spaces

56 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

between worlds', the universe (pmne) being made up of countless worlds
such as ours. See Introduct. p. xxv.

148. ienuis, 'fine', 'subtle', 'impalpable': it is two syllables, the
u being consonantal. deurn is gen. plur.

149. animi niente, 'the reasoning of the mind'. z/;V^/«r is passive,
as often ; decopHTai \6y(i) is the Greek equivalent of rncnfe videtur.

150. suffiigit: the perf. should be noticed where the context re-
quires the pres. ; fugio and its compounds are so used elsewhere, e.g.
Virg. Aen. ii. 12 horret luctuque refugit.

151. The order is: debet contingere nil quod nobis tactile sit. sit
because quod=tale ut. contingere = tangere.

The nature of the gods can touch nothing we can touch ; therefore
they do not live in habitations visible to us.

153. etiam quoque is pleonastic, like quippe etenim 1. 126.

154. de corpore eorum, 'after the fashion of their bodies'; the fuU
phrase is de exeinplo corporis eonan.

155. This promise is nowhere fulfilled, one of many signs that the
poem is unfinished.

156. dicere is the subject to desiperest, 1. 165. voluisse, decere
1. 158, fas esse 1. 160, are all governed by dicere. As subject to
voluisse, sc. deos.

157. mundi naturaf>i : see n. to animi natura, 1. 59.

159. putare is governed by decere.

160. sit: subj. of dependent clause in £'ra/'/«? ^(5//r/«a.
ratione: see n. to 1. 81.

161. fundatum perpetuo aevo, lit. 'founded on unending time', i.e.
'founded to last for ever'; comp. ossibus fundatum, 1. 927.

163. ab imo summa is a compressed phrase for tota ab imo usque ad
sum ma.

164. adfngere et addert take up again the original subject dicere,
1. 1 56, the predicate being desipcre below.

166. largirier : archaic form of largiri, like dignaricr 1. 5 i.
emolumetiti is partitive gen. after quid; comp. sipii, 1. 918.

167. adgrediantur, ' should take in hand ', wcrre iir^xeipHV, the
metaphor both in Greek and English preferring the hand to the foot.

168. novi : partitive gen. after qtiid, like emolumenti above. tanto
post goes with cuperent, ante ( = antea) with quieios.

172. anieacio: three syllables by jyw/zc-jw-.

174. credo shows that the sei.tence is ironical. vita, sc. dcorum.

NOTES. 57

175. ^if«/te/zV cr«fi?, ' the first birth-time '.

176 — 180 form a digression. Lucr. has been saying that the gods
could gain nothing by the creation of men ; he now goes on to say that
men could have no quarrel with the gods, if they had never been
created.

crcatis : the acc. could stand herc as well as the dat. ; see creatiim,
1. 180.

177. The order of the words is at first sight strange as the metre
would allow debet enim natus quicunque est; but natus gains emphasis
thus, and the separation of natus and est is quite in the manner of
Lucr. ; see n. to 1. 90.

178. donec, ' as long as '.

180. in numero, sc. viventitim, ' included among the living'.

obest, sc. ei.

i8r. gignundis is archaic iox gignendis, like reddunda, 1. 66.

182. notities is intended to represent the technical Epicurean term
■irp6\7]^is, ' preconception ' of mankind, i.e. idea of what men were
like. See 1. 1047 and Introduct. p. xxiv. If no men existed, there could
be no images (eiduXa) of them, and consequently no conception (Trp6\7j\pis)
of what they were hke.

183. Comp. 1. 1049. "' is consecutive ; facere goes with vellent.

184. principioi'um : these principia (dpxat) , or primordia rerum
(aTovxCLo.), are the atoms of Epicurus, the ultimate and indivisible
elements of all matter; see Introduct. p. xxii.

Lucr. uses pi-incipiorum as the gen. of primordia, just as he uses
arbusta for the plur. of arbor, to suit the requirements of his metre : see
n. to 1. 671.

185. quidque . . .possent \ an indirect question, which is in fact a
second subject to cognita est.

186. natura : in the Epicurean philosophy nature and chance are
identified; comp. 1. 77 with 1. 107.

187. ita is followed by ut, 1. 192.

188. plagae are the blows inflicted by atoms on each other.

189. concita goes •wiih ponderilms.

190. omnimodis ( = om7iibus modis) seems to be formed by false
analogy from multitnodis ( — multis modis).

191. congressa : nom.

193. deciderunt, sc. primordia. quoqtie goes with iales in 1. 192.
vicatus, ' courses '.

58 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1 94. qiialibus — quales sunt ii quibiis.

haec reruin summa, ' this sum of matter ', i.e. our world ; Ihe
summa sunimarum, ' sum of sums ' (1. 361), includes all worlds.

novando, 'by constant renewing'; the gerund is used actively to
supply oblique cases of the infinitive; see n. io procudendo 1. 1265. The
number of atoms in any world is constant, but their combinations are
constantly changing.

'95~234- I^ <^f^y '^^^^ the world is so far from perfect that it is
impossible to attribute to it a divine origin. A great part of it is
uninhabitable ; the inhabitable part is cultivated with great labour,
and often without restdt. Think too of the wild beasts, the diseases,
the early deaths, and of the helpless condition of the human infant
conipared with the offspring of other animals.

This paragraph is in the poet's noblest style.

195. si iam, 'even if it were the case that'; si iam (and ut iam)
are used with the pres. subj. to state a hypothesis provisionally, for
the sake of argument. Here the iam suggests that Lucr. is not really
ignorant. d dpa is often used in this sense ; Thuc iii 56 el dpa TjfidpTijTai.

quae sint : indirect question.

196. ra^zWz/i^MJ-, 'arrangements'. ausim, zxokszxz iox audeam.

197. reddere is short for rationem reddere; see 1. 66.

198. divinitus, debdev, 'by the gods '.

199. stat—constat — est. prcudita is more commonly used of good
or neutral qualities. culpa, ' faultiness '.

200. quantuni...inde=a tanto quantum.

impetus, 'whirling expanse'; it seems to denote both size and
motion; for the revolution of the sky, see 1. 510.

20X. silvae ferarum : so we speak of 'a den of lions '.

202. vastae, 'waste', 'barren', not 'huge'; comp. i 722 vasta
Charybdis.

204. inde porro (lireira), ' next ', answers to prituipio (Trpuro»
Itiv), 1. 200 ; it is different from inde in 1. 201.

dnas partes, rd 5vo fJ^ipy], ' two thirds'.

205. casus, 'falling'.

206. arvi, ' consisting of land fit to cultivate '.

209. Virg. Georg. ii 237 validis terram proscinde iuvencis. In this
second Georgic Virgil imitates Lucr. far more than in his olher poems.
See Inlroduct. p. xvi.

NOTES. 59

211. cimus : from cire, ci^re being the common form. As object to
cimus and subject to nequeant below, some word like fruges must be
supplied.

212. neqtccant : an irregular form of condition, the rule in Latin
requiring the same mood, as well as tense, in protasis and apodosis.

213. et tamen, ' and after all ' ; see n. to 1. 1096.
quaesita : see n. to 1. 5.

217. Note the repetition of v and t; comp. I. 12.

219. te7-ra marique: the local abl. without iji is found in this
phrase even in prose.

220. anni tempora : the autumn was particularly dreaded by the
Romans as a time of fevers.

222. tum porro is pleonastic, either word being sufficient; comp.
indeporro, 1. 204.

proiectus ab undis : the waves are personified ; comp. ab aevo, 1. 306.

223. humiis locative; see n. to 1. 97. infans has here its original
meaning of v^Trtos: comp. infantia, 1. 1031.

224. vitali, ' for hfe '. in luminis oras : see n. to 1. 85.

226. ut aequumst, sc. eumfacere.

227. cui^quod ei and therefore takes the subj. tatttum malorum
is object to transire, and restet is impersonal.

228. variae, 'of different kinds '.

229. crepitacillis : Martial, xiv 54, has this distich on the crepita-
cillum :

si quis plorator collo tibi vernula pendet,
haec quatiet tenera garrula sistra manu.

230. almae, 'fostering', the word being derived from alerc, Lucr.
speaks of alma Venus in the second line of his poem, and of liquor almus
aquarum, ii 390.

infracta loquella, ' the broken speech ' addressed by nurses to the
human baby.

233. qui=quo, 'wherewith'; the antecedent is plur. as often ;
comp. Plaut. Aul. 498 vehicla qui vehar ' carriages for me to drive
in ' ; qui, not qtto, is the original abl., as quis is plainly of the third
declension, not the second.

234. daedala rerum, 'cunning in works'. This form of SatSaXeos
is used by Lucr. (i) in a passive sense, as an epithet of tellus, carmitia,
signa, (2) Avith a genit., as here and in the phrase verborum daedala
lingua.

6o LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

2^- — 246. Jf the parts of anything are morta!, thc whoU miisl be so too.
But it is />/ain that the elenients of the world are mortal ; therefore
the earth and sky inust sonie day perish.

In sense this follows directly after 1. 109, the digression being
concluded.

236. aniniae, lit. ' breathings '. vopores, ' heats ' : this is the only
meaning of vapor in Lucr.

237. haec reruni summa: see n. to 1. 194. wV^/«y is passive.

238. nativo ac mortali, ' that was boru and must die'; see n. to
1. 60.

239. eodem, sc. corport constare. mundi natura : see n. to 1. 59.
242. ferme, 'as a rule': fere is identical in meaning.

244. consutnpta regigni: see n. to 1. 109.

245. quoque item is pleonastic, as either word would have sufEced :
comp. etiam quoqiie 1. 153, inde porro 1. 204, tiwi porro 1. 222.

246. principiale, ' of beginning '. fnticram, sc. esse.

247 — 260. But if I must prove that the elements are mortal, look first
at earth and consider hotv it is blown away in dust by the winds and
eaten away by the rivers ; it is in turn replenished, as it is the tomb
ofall things.

247. in his rebus, ' herein '. corripuisse illud me mihi, lit. ' that I
have snatched this for myself, i.e. 'that I have assumed without
proof ' ; arripe)'e is used by Cicero in this sense.

249. perire : the common constr. after non dubitare, ' not to doubt ',
is quin and the subj., the inf. being used after non dubitare, ' not to
hesitate '.

250. rursus goes with gigni as well as with augescere.

251. principio is taken up by quod superest, 'next', 1. 261.

252. viulta pedwn vi=vi multorum pedum. Comp. Hor. Sat. i 4
141 7nulta poetarum veniet fnanus.

253. nubes, ' wreaths '.

255. ad diluviem revocatur, lit. ' is reduced to washing away ', i.e.
' is washed away ' ; the phrase recurs, vi 292. With this use of revocatur
comp. redibat, 1. 1141. diluvies is the same word as our 'deluge'.

356. radentia rodunt : see n. to 1. 109.

257. pro parte sua, ' in its turn ', iv fiipei. alid is archaic for aliud;
see n. to 1. 1305.

NOTES. 6i

258. reddi/ttr, ' has restitution made to it ' ; • a strange use of the
word. dtibio procul is an adverb. videtur is passive.

259. onmiparens, used as a noun, is the subj.: cadem is not an
epithet, but part of the predicate.

260. tibi : ethical dat., of the person interested in a statement : 'so
you see that the earth ' etc. ; see 11. 294, 805, 1209.

261 — 272. So water is constantly welling upfrom springs, and pouring
from rivers into the sea ; but much is constantly carried off by the
sun and wind, and much sinks into the earth, where it deposits its
salt before finding its way back into the rivers.

261. qtiod superest : see n. to I. 64.

262. latices: either internal acc after, or subject to, manare.

263. nil opus est verbis, sc. declarare from declarat below.

264. undique goes with decursus.

primum quicquid aquai, rh dei irpuTov vSwp. For quisquis = quisqiie,
see 11. 131 and 284, 304 below.

265. nil: acc. of «2/^?7used adverbially; comp. hiliun 1. 358.
267. retexens, lit. 'undoing its fabric', i.e. decomposing it. The

metaphor is from weaving.

269. virus, ' the salt ' of the sea-water.

So Seneca (Nat. Quaest. iii 5) says of the sea-water, occulto itinere
subit terras colatiirque in transitu mare,

271. dulci, i.e. not salt.

272. pede, 'course': we speak of a stream running, but we can
hardly speak of its ' foot ', though Jeremy Taylor could.

273 — 280. The air too is constantly changing. It is continually
increased by emanations frot?i material objects ; and it must give
back as much as it receives, or else all objecls would have become
air by this time.

273. corpore : abl. of part concerned.

274. privas = singulas \ so in dies privos, 1. 733.

275. In order to account for sensation, Epicurus taught that exces-
sively fine films or images {simulacra) are constantly being thrown ofF
from the surface of bodies and conveyed to the mind by the medium of
the senses. See Introduct. p. xxiv.

277. retribuat..forent \ an irregular condition, the rule in Latin
requiring the same tense, as well as mood, in protasis and apodosis ;
D. 7

62 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

retribueret is what the sense naturally requires. For a differeiit irre^-
larity see 1. 212.

278. iain, ' by this time'.

279. cessat, sc. aer.

280. Jliiere, 'to ebb', is said both of the images and of the bodies
which throw them off.

281 — 305. Tlie same is true of fire. The sun is constantly sending
out nezv Hght to supply the place ofwhat is cut offby clouds. Lamps
also and torches keep up their brightness by a constant succession of
light, and the case is the same with the moon and stars.

281. liquidi, ' clear-streaming '.

282. inrigat, ' floods ' ; the metaphor oi fotis luminis being kept up.
candor is properly the white heat of glowing metal.

284. prinuim quicquid fulgoris, rb ael irpQTov <pws. See n. to
1. 131.

ei, i.e. so/i ; for the dat. comp. ta/i, 1. 173. ei is always a spondee
in Lucr., and either a spondee or one long syllable in such genitives as
rei, diei.

285. licet cognoscere possis: pleonastic, as either licet cognoscas or
potes cognoscere would suffice.

286. succedere, ' to pass beneath ' ; the original meaning of the
word.

287. inter quasi rumpere = quasi inierrumpere. This separation of
the verb and the preposition (which is called tmesis) is universal in
early language ; examples may be found on any page of Homer.

289. qua and cumque make up one word.

290. ut noscas, i.e. inde noscis.

292. posse: inf. after rwscas, I. 290. in sole, ' in the sun-light'.
videri is passive.

294. tibi, 'you see': ethical dat. ; see n. to 1. 260.

295. lychini is the Greek \vxvoi. with a vowel inserted, as in
Aloxmena, mma, to make the word easier to Roman mouths.

clarae...pingues : for the double epithet see n. to 1. 13.

296. pingucs, 'resinous'. multa caligine: abl. of attendant cir-
cumstances, sometimes called absolute.

297. ardore tninistro : abl. of means. In two Unes Lucr. has four
ablatives with a characteristic indifference to ambiguity.

299. instant : this rhetorical figure {epanalepsis), by w hich the

NOTES. 63

same word ends one line and begins the next.recuis 1. 950. rupta is
nom. sing.

300. The order is : usqtie adeo properanter exitium ei (liici) celattir
celeri Jlainmae origine ab omnibus ignibus.

303. subortu, ' fresh supply '.

304. primum quicquid: see n. to 1. 131.

305. ne credas: final sentence ; see n. to 1. 114.

306 — 317. The power of tivie prevails against the strongest things
stich as stones, rocks, and metals. When we see these decay before
our eyes, ive must infer that they have not existed from infinite time
past.

306. ab aevo : time is personified ; hence the preposition.

308. fessa goes closely viiihfatisci.

309. numen, 'sacredness' ; %o numcn habere, ' to be sacred'.
fati protollere fines, ' to move forward the bounds set by fate'.

310. posse: inf. after cernis, 1. 306.

311. vi}-u?n: contracted gen. plur. : so Chaldaeum, 1. 727.

312. The text is uncertain ; I give the reading of Munro's first
edition.

313. non, %c. videmtis ? j?7?V^j-, ' masses of basalt ' ; silice sternere,
•to pave', the Romans using the stone for this purpose.

315. neque, not non, is regularly used before enitn. The sense is :
' finite time, I say ; for if they had been there from everlasting, they
would remain fixed for ever, and not fall down as we see them do ' ; see
n. to 1. 376.

316. quae — si ea, the sentence being a protasis.

317. tormenta aetatis: just so Shakespeare (Sonnet 65) speaks of
'the wreckful siege of battering days'.

privata fragore = sine frag.; Lucr. often uses privattis in the sense
of expers ; comp. viduata, 1. 840, and Thuc. iii 63 x^P'-^ aiffx^v-qs
iiri)\\ayiiiv7).

318 — 323. /fit be true that the all-embracing ether begets all things and
takes them back into itself, then ether itiust be subject to change a7id
therefore mortal.

318. tuere,\iMt tuere,\. 92: in Lucr. iui is always 'to s&c',tueri
either ' to see ' or ' to maintain '. hoc is the ether.

320. quidatn : particularly the Stoics.

7—2

64 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

321. co)istat=cst, as in 1. 144.

323. Compressed for: deniinui dcbct alcndo et angendo, recreari
debet cum recipit res.

324 — 350. Again if the world has existed from everlasting, why does
not history go further back ? We see too that improvements are
constantly being made in the arts and sciences, which seetns to prove
them to be of recent origin. But if you hold that civilisation has
advanced as far before and then been swallowed up by some convul-
sion of nature, then you must allow that a world, which is liable to
stuh convulsions, is liabie also to complcte destruction.

324. genitalis origo : see n. to 1. 175.

326. belbim Thebanum : the expedition of Adrastus, king of Argos,
against Thebes, in order to restore to his throne Polynices, the exiied
son of Oedipus. This was the subject of the Thebais, a lost epic
poem which the ancients ranked next to the Iliad and Odyssey.

funera Troiae : ' the destruction of Troy ', as told in the Homeric
poems.

328. cecidere, 'have vanished'; comp. ii 1165 suspirat at-ator...
incassum tnanuum cecidisse labores, Hor. Ep. ii i 51 leviter curare
videtur quo promissa cadant.

330. summa^haec rerum summa, i.e. our wcrld. See n. to 1. 194.

331. Jiatura mundi: see n. to anir?ii natura 1. 59.
exordia cepit : the metaphor is from beginning a sveb.

332. etiam...nunc go together, as in 1. 17. expoliuntur, 'are
reaching perfection ' ; a strict pres.

333. nunc etiam : the reverse order, as just above, is commoner; but
comp. 1. 20. augescunt, sc. quaedam.

334. organici melicos: so Plautus constantly uses Greek ad-
verbs, e.g. musice, basilice, tnore (fooiishly), graphice (cleverly). tnelicos
sonores, ' musical tunes '.

335. ratio, ' system '. natura rerutn ratioqiu is a hendiadys.

336. nuper: Epicurus was born in Samos in 342 B.c, three
hundred years before Lucr. wrote.

primus cutti prirtiis is emphatic, like iti primis primutii, 1. 59.

337. possim is consecutive subj., qui being = /a/jV ut.

338. antehac: two syllables by sytiizesis: in the same way the first
two syllables of cooperuisse (1. 342) coalesce.

339. hominum saccla, ' the generations of men' ; saeclum is seldom
'age' in Lucr., generally ' race '.

NOTES. 65

vapore: see n. to 1. 236.
341. ex, 'after '.

343. tanto quique, ' by so much, however much', i.e. 'by just that
amount'. quique is the abl. of quisque. Comp. Livy iii 40 extr.
dilectum primo quoque tempore haberi, ' at the first opportunity, what-
ever it be', i.e. ' at the first possible opportunity '.

victus fateare: see n. to 1. 109.

344. exitium, ' utter destruction'.

346. ibi, ' at that time '. tristior, ' fiercer '.

347. darent: vve should expect dedissent. Lucr. commonly uses
dare vvith ruinas, sonitum, crepitum, fragorem, where a prose writer
would xxsefcuere.

349. inter nos, lit. ' among ourselves ', i.e. we men, as distinguished
from inanimate things.

350. atque, ' as ', after isdcm,

35 1 — 379. Anythitig that is etemal must satisfy one of three cottditions.
Either it must be impenetrable to blows, as atoms are; or il must be
untouched by them, as void is; or there nnist be no room outside of it,
into which it cati pass, as is the case with the universe as a whole.
But our world does not satisfy any one of these conditions and must
the>-efore perish. You must also admit that a world which must
some day perish cannot have existed from infnite time past,

351. necessumst govems respuere I. 352, pati 1. 353, and posse 1. 356.

352. solido cum corpore : cum is superfluous, as there is an epithet;
comp. 11. 364, 864.

353. sibi, 'into themselves': dat. of local relation, rare in prose:
comp. Virg. Aen. xi 192 it caelo clamor.

queat is subjunctive, because quod=tale ut.

354. intus is properly used of rest within a place, intro of niotion;
so intro ire, but inttis esse.

355. corpora materiai, ' bodies of matter ', i.e. atoms : the first two
books are mainly devoted to a systematic explanation of the properties
of atoms and void, the two great constituents of the universe. See
Introduct. p. xiv.

356. durare: see n. to 1. 57.

357. inane, -rh kcvov, 'void'; vacuum, loctcs, spatittm, are other
terms for the same. Void is exempt from blows because it is too
impalpable to be affected by them.

66 LUCRETJUS. BOOK V.

358. ab ictii, ' in consequence of a blow' ; comp. ab i^i 1. ^04.
/utigititr, ' is acted upon'; Lucr. commonly translates the technical

terms Traffxet»' hyftingi, iroieh hy /acere.

hilttm is used adverbially like its negative nihil 1. 265 ; the abl. hilo
occurs 1. 1409.

359. nt(lla...circum, • there is no extent of space around '.

360. quo = ut in eitm. quasi apologises for the oddness of the idea.

361. summarum summa: see n. to 1. 194.

362. qui=. aliqui : we should rather expect «//«/.
dissiliant, sc. res.

364. The existence of void was proved in the first book, chiefly by
two considerations : first, but for void, all motion would be impossible ;
second, the presence of void is necessary to explain difference in weight
between bodies equal in bulk.

366. est ut inane, ' is it like void '.

368. corruere: active, a rare use; ruere is active in 1. 1325.

kam rerum summam : our world or mundus, opposed to the omne or
sttmmartim stimma; see n. to 1. 194.

369. cladem pericli, 'dangerous disaster'; the gen. serves as a kind
of epithet; comp. murmttra minarum, 1. 1193, Catull. 23 11 casus
alios peHcttloritm, Aesch. Pers. 438 ffvixcpopa. irddovi.

370. natttra loci=locus, a periphrasis common in Lucr. ; see n. to
1. 59. spatiutn, x'^/'"i is another name for inane, implying the motion
of bodies through it.

372. pulsa perire: see n. to 1. 109.

375. i??ifnane: acc. neut. of the adj. used adverbially. respectat,
' looks towards them '.

376. The same argument as 11. 315 — 317 : if these things are to be
destroyed at some future time, they cannot have existed from infinite
time past; in the language of Lucr., if they are mortalia, they must also
be nativa.

•3,11. neqtte enim: see n. to 1. 315.

380—415. You might gttess the final destruction o/ the worldwhmyou
note the perpetual ivar/are between fire and water, each striving to
gain the mastery and destroy the earth. Legends tell that each
prevailed once, fire, when Phaethon was run away with by the horses
0/ ihe sun, water, at the time 0/ a great delttge. And science agrees
with legend thottgh it assigns differetit causes.

NOTES. 67

381. mevibra: i.e. fire and water.

pio neqiiaquam = iinpio, 'civil' war. An old Roman formula speaks
oi puruvi piumque duellum.

382. ollis is archaic for ilHs; it is found in Virgil.

383. vel cutn should be answered by vel cum umor, but there is
a change of construction at 1. 386.

384. exsuperarint is fut. perf.

385. neque adhuc = sed notuium. patrantnt is a probable correction
of the MS. reading patrantur.

386. tantum, 'so much'. ultra, 'besides', not content with
keeping the fire down ; ultro is very common in this sense in Tacitus.

387. diluviare: pres. infin., instead of future, common in old Latin
after verbs of promising, hoping etc. ; so confidunt posse, 1. 390, Plaut.
Mil. Glor. 229 hoc si unus recipcre ad te dicis.

388. 389. See 11. 266, 267.

390. prius quam possit : it seems that prius quam and ante quavi
in Lucr. take the subj., unless qtiam comes before prius or ante;
comp. iii 973 quam nascinmr ante, vi 979 quatti adgredior...prius.

392. Note the assonance ol certamine, cernere, certant.

393. cemere: archaic for decernen; with a different sense, 1. 782.

394. interea, ' nevertheless ', like eodem tempore; see n. to I. 83.

396. superdt is a contracted form of superavit, as the context
requires and the quantity proves ; there are two similar forms in Lucr.,
inritat i 70, disturbat vi 587 ; in all three cases the -at is followed by
a vowel.

397. avia, like obvius in 1. 402, must not be translated as a mere
epithet. Phaethon induced his father Helios to let him drive the
chariot of the sun for one day, and nearly set the world on fire.

398. aethere : abl. of place where, not of place whence ; so toto aere
1. 254, totoorbil. 1166. per, 'over'.

400. magnanimtim, ' aspiring ' ; perhaps sarcastic.

repenti: this adj. (to be distinguished from repens, ' crawling') is very
rare ; the adv. repente is common ; but repentinus is the usual form of
the adj.

401. deturbavit: so (Plaut. Mil. Glor. i6o) Periplecomenus tells
his slaves, ' if you see anyone on our roof ', huc deturbatote in viam.

402. aeterna/n: as Lucr. is engaged proving the sun among other
things not to be eternal, this epithet can only be justified on poetical
grounds, unless he is actually translating from a Greek poet.

68 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

404. suiim iter, ' thcir right path '; suum=proprium and does not
refer to sol^ the subject of the sentence, by a licence common to all the
poets.

rec7-eavit cuncta to be taken togethcr.

405. j«7iV<r/, ' forsooth'; contemptuous.
Graium: gen. plur.

408. plura, i.e. more than usual.

409. revictae, 'conquered in turn ' ; comp. Hor. Od. iv 4 13 victrices
catervae consiliis iuvcnis revictae.

410. aut, 'orelse', el d^ /jlti.

411. quondam, i.e. in the time of Deucalion, the Noah of Greek
mythology. superare coorius : see n. to 1. 109.

413. ratione = modc. aversa reccssit : see n. to 1. 109.

4 1 6 — 43 T. / 7vill now describe the formation of the earth, sky, and sea,
and tht viotions ofthe heavenly bodies. The ivorld was not purposely
formed by conscious atoms ; it is the chance result, after endless cxperi-
vicnts, of their blind motions and clashings.

416. ille coniectus, ^ yon cowcomss'' ; vivid. Comp. 1. 67.

417. fundarit: indirect question a.hcT ponant.

418. ex orditte, 'next in order ', f0e|^j; ordine often = ' from
beginning to end '.

419. consilio, 'bydesign'. primordia reruvt: see n. to 1, 184.

420. suo is one syllable, being pronounced sivo.

41 1. darent: the direct question is qxos demtts viotus? where
demus is deliberative ; so darent is doubly subjunctive. For dare with
motus and similar words, see n. to 1. 347.

424. concita goes with pondciibus.

425. omnivtodis: see n. to 1. 190, from which passage 11. 422 — 426
are repeated.

427. volgata, ' spread abroad '.

428. omne genus is acc. used adverbially as in 1. 437, 'of every
kind'; comp. homo istuc aetatis, a common Plautine phrase. coetus
and motus are both acc. plur.

429. ca: the subject, which has previously been atoms generally, is
suddenly restricted to a particular concourse of them.

430. saepc: worlds such as ours are innumerable, and the creation
of one such often happens.

J

NOTES. 69

432 — 448. In the original chaos there were no separate objects, no sun or
moon, noearth, sky, or sea, only a medley of imrring atoms : grddually
the parts ofthe world began to separate. -^^

432. hic, 'then'; again, 1. 1002 ; it seems not to differ from tiim.

433. mu7tdi = caeli, as often.

435. nostris rebus, ' the things we see '. videri is passive.

436. ' but only a strange stormy crisis and medley' ; so Ovid (Met.
i 7) calls chaos rudis indigestaque tnoles.

437. 0 mne genus is didvexhidil, going v/ith principiis ; id genus and
quod genus also are so used; see n. to 1. 428.

quoruvi goes with discordia, and out of it eortim is to be supphed
with all the accusatives governed by turbabat.

441. sic, 'straight off', 'at once ', oJrwo-i; comp. the use of sic, 1.
970.

442. mottis dare : see n. to 1. 347. inter sese con. : ' mutually har-
monious '.

443. inde loci, lit. ' thence of place ', i.e. ' in the next place '.
Notice how all the prepositions, with which the verbs are here com-
pounded, imply separation, dis- being used four times and se- five times ;
the former denotes the separation of several, the latter of two things.

447. pateret: the construction suddenly changes, the infin. giving
place to a consec. subjunctive ; see n. to efficerent \. 454.

448. aetheris ignes are the heavenly bodies.

449 — 494. The heavy ato??is niet together in the middle of chaos and by
their close union squeezed out the smaller and lighter atoms. These
rose up and formed the ether, zvhich walls in the world, and the
heavenly bodies, whose atoms are lighter than those of eaj-th, heavier
than those of ether. When these had withdrawn, the hollows which
the sea now fills, were flooded with salt water ; and as condensation
of the earth constantly wetit on owing to the heat of ether and the
sun, therefore more light atoins of ether and salt atotns of sea-water
were constantly squeezed out.

449. quippe etetiitti : see n. to 1. 126.

450. perplexa, sc. ititer se.

452. perplexa coibant : see n. to 1. 109.

453. tam, for tanto ; also 1. 487 ; quanto is often followed by iam
in Lucr., instead of ianto.

70 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

454. efficerent: consec. subj. Lucr. will not admit anything like
design in the formation of the world; consequently the final subj. is
inappropriate here. ' The walls of the great world' are the ether,
mundus being used as in 1. 433.

456. mitwribu' : see n. to 1. 53.

457. rara, ' porous ', not ' scattered '.

459. levis : transl. by the adverb for convenience, and notice the
meaning different from levibus above.

460. ' much in the same way as ' ; again, 1. 1030. The construction
is a little irregular : vidennis should be followed by an acc. and inf., but
at 1. 465 the sentence takes a different turn.

461. aurea...matutina: see n. to 1. 13.

464. ut, 'as'; ut 'when', is probably not Lucretian.

465. quae, the mist from the water and smoke from the ground.
in alto, 'on high'; again, 1. 584.

466. corpore concreto : because clouds are substantial compared to
mist and smoke.

subtexunt etc. : ' as clouds they weave a covering beneath the sky ' ;
nubila is in apposition. Comp. vi 482 aestus...subtexit caerula nitnbis.

468. circumdatus, ' sweeping round '.

469. partes, ' directions '.

470. avido: comp. avidi montes 1. 201.

471. exordia, 'rudiments'; see n. to 1. 331.

472. interutrasque, ' in the middle ', i.e. between earth and ether;
an adverb formed Xik&foras, alias ; comp. interea.

475. Before levia repeat tam. labier : archaic for labi.

476. ita sunt ut, ' though they are..., yet they...' ; the liniitative
use of ita ut.

viva, like aeternam 1. 402, is a merely poetical epithct ; for comp.
11. 122 — 125.

477. mundi totius includes earth, sky, and sea.
extent=sint.

478. qtiod genus is adverbial, like omne genus, 1. 428.
in nobis, ' in our bodies '.

479. sint ea quae mov., toTiv a Ktfeirai, 'some are in motion '.

480. retractis, 'withdrawn'.

482. fossas : koLXovs Tdirovs in the original (see Plut. de plac. phil.
i 4) which Lucr. seems to be translating.

483. circum : adverb. aestus, ' heats '.

NOTES. 71

485. verberibus . . .Htnina, ' by constant blows. on its outer surface '.
in artum goes with cogcbant.

486. condensa is for condensata which is never used.

487. corpore, sc. terrae.

489. illa, ' of which I spoke '.

490. vaporis'. see n. to 1. 236.
alta...fulgentia : see n. to divina antiqua 1. 13.

491. densebant: each reinforcement of particles squeezed out from
the earth made ether more substantial. templa : see n. to 1. 103.

492. montibus'. dat. commodi ; comp. artibus, 1. 1457.

493. neque enim : see n. to 1. 315. The level was unequal because
rocks could not sink at all and other things sank an unequal amount.

494. pariter tatttundem is pleonastic.

495 — 508. So the earth sank to the bottom, separate froi7i the sea and
other lighter parts of the world. Of all parts the ether is the
lightest and soars above the rest, untroubled by the storms which go
on beneath it.

495. terrae pondus, 'the heavy earth'; so argenti pondus, 1. 1242.

496. constitit, ' became solid '. mundi, in the same sense as in 1.
433. quasi apologises for the strange expression /imus.

497. gravis, 'by its weight '.

498. For the distinction between aether and aer, see n. to I. 85.

499. liquidis : see n. to 1. 281.

500. aliis alia, sc. sunt.

502. turbantibus, 'troubled'; here and 1. 504 the verb has a
neuter sense ; so 1. 831 vertere = verti, 1. 1422 convertere — converti.

503. haec omnia, ' all before our eyes *, i.e. the troubled air below
ether.

505. impete, ' motion', archaic for impetu ; see n. to 1. 200.

506. uno nisu is co-ordinate with modice.

507. Pontos is the Pontus Euxinus or Black Sea; comp. Seneca
Nat. Quaest. iv 2 29 ob hoc Pontus in infernum mare adsidue fluit ra-
pidus...in unam partem semper protius et torrens; Juv. iv 43 torrentis
ad ostia Ponti. There is a constant current from the smaller sea into
the Mediterranean.

508. This smooth gliding line well expresses the sense.

509 — 533. Ncxt as to the motion of the stars ; if the sky revolves, the
axis of its sphetx must be kept steady by an air blowing on each pole.

72 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

and the motion of the stars is dtu to a third air, ivhich blows, either

above the sphere in the direction in which the stars move, or below

the sphere in the contrary direciion, If the sky does not revolve, the

motion of the stars is due eilhcr to heats inside themselves, or to an

air from without, or to their own volition. It is impossible to say

which of these catises operates in oiir world; but one of these men-

tioned it must be.

This paragraph interrupts the narrative, and there IS no place in

the book where it fits in naturally, though it ought properly to come

in with the description of sun and moon. It appears to have been

a subsequent addition which was never properly connected with the

rest.

509. There is no special mention of the planets here or elsewhere
in the book.

510. Lucr. regards this as an open question though he speaks, 1.
1436, of mundi versatile teinplum.

511. ex titraque parti, ' at each pole '. polum is the axis, not the
pole, of the sphere of heaven. aera is the subject to premere.

512. utrimque, ' at both ends'. The two airs serve to keep the
axis of the sphere steady ; a third is required to put the sphere in
motion. It is important to realise that the stars are included in the
sphere ; comp. 1. 1205.

513. alium, sc. aera.

514. quo volvenda 7nicant = quo volvmitur micantia. volvenda
=:volventia of 1. 931, the gerundive being used as pres. particip.;
so secundus, 'following', from sequor. This use of volvendus recurs
1. 1276, and twice in Virgil (Aen. 1 269, ix 7).

aeterni : see nn. to 11. 402, 476.

515. alium, sc. aera fluere. subvehat: final.

516. The wheel here spoken of, still common in the East, is
intended for irrigation ; it is made to revolve by the current, and draws
waler out of the river by means of the haustra, 'scoops', attached to it.
These scoops are mentioned here only because they are fastened to the
wheel as ihe stars are to the sphere of heaven. Jiuvios is the subject to
versare.

517. est uti possit=potest ; pleonastic; comp. 1. i^6.

519. inclusi, sc. in signis. rapidi : nom.

520. viam, ' 3. •wz.y ovX\ ignes, sc. sigiiorum.

NOTES. 73

521. Summanus was an obscure deity {quisquis is est, says Ovid)
who caused night-tliunder ; hence Summania templa are the nightly
sky; for templa see n. to \. 103.

522. aliunde alicunde = aXKo9iv wodev, 'from some other place';
i.e., the air is not, like the heats, shut up in the stars themselves.

523. versat agens, 'drives and whirls'. Here again Lucr. seems
inconsistent in attributing volition to the stars ; we may account for it
as we have already accounted for such epithets as aeternus and vivus
(11. 402, 476).

524. euntes is nom. plur.

525. pascentes : the food of the stars is fire. Comp. i 231 unde
aether sidera pascit? Seneca (Nat. Quaest. vii 21 2) accounts thus for
the motion of a comet: ignium modo alimentum suum sequitur.

526. quid sit eorum, ' which of these (explanations) holds'; an
indirect question 2i{ter ponere certum.

certum, ' for certain'.

527. possit=potis sit, ' is possible '. otnne, rh Trav, is the summa
summarum, the entire universe.

529. sequor disponere, ' I go on to distinguish ' ; a rare use of
sequor=^pergo.

531. hoc = hac rerum sumtna, our world.

532. vegeat: an active verb. signis : dat. commodi. earum, sc.
causarum.

533. progredientis : the adjectival or attributive genitive ; rash
assertion is not the attribute of one who etc.

534 — 563. The earth remains at rest in the middle of the world
because the weight of its lower parts is less than that of the upper.
Indeed its substance beneath is different and more akin to air. From
its lo7ig connexion tvith the air, the iveight of the earth is not felt
any more than a tnan feels the weight of his ozvn limbs. The air
sustains the earth without effort just as the soul sustaitis the body.

535. pondus, sc. terrae.

536. convenit is impersonal.

naturam, ' substance ', is object to habere, terram being supplied as
subject. This substance of which the earth is composed below must be
lighter than earth itself in order to account for the earth resting in the
middle of the world. Apparently Lucr. conceived the earth to be a
more or less flat surface both above and below.

74 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

The stability of the earth was a great problem to the ancients,
owing to their ignorance of the nature of attraction; some believed
that the earth was constantly falling through space (Seneca Nat.
Quaest. vii 14 4) though the motion was imperceptible.

537. uniter: so longiler 1. 133, duriier 1. 1402 ; but the gen. and
dat. sing. of unus make this form less strange. af>tatn : particip. of
archaic verb apere, ' to fit ', the only part used ; to be distinguished from
aj>ttis particip. oiapisci (see n. to 1. 808).

538. vivit: see nn. to vivit 1. 476, aetcrnam 1. 402.

639. non est otieri, sc. auris terrd. oneri, lit. 'for a burden ', is a
predicative dat.

540. pondere : abl. of description.

543. imposta = imposita; so we say imposition but impostor, both
derived from imponere.

545. magni: locative of price : refert and interest take also a gen.
of the person concerned, e.g. magni refert Cieeronis; but instead of the
gen. of the personal pronouns, the abl. sing. fem. of the possessive adj. is
used, e.g. med (not mei) refert.

quid obeat=quod munus obire debeat.

546. est belongs to allata below ; see n. to 1. 90. aliena is part of
the predicate ; ' the earth is not an alien body suddenly brought in ' etc.

548. pariter, sc. cum aiiris.

549. eius, i.e. viundi. videntur, sc. esse certae partes nostri.
551. The 'things above the earth' are the air.

554. As subject to haerent, sc. terra et aer.

555. uniter apta, ' framed into one ' : see nn. to 1. 537.

556. magno pondere : abl. of description, going with co^7<j ; *how
heavy our body is, which' etc.

557. tenuissima: see n. to 1. 148. animai, 'of the soul'; see n.
to 1. 59.

559. iam, 'actually', gocs with saltii pernici; see n. to 1. 1066.

560. potis \s neuter, as in 1. 719; see n. to 1. i. animi, 'of the
mind '; see n. to 1. 59.

561. quantum valere possit: pleonastic for quantum valeat.
563. nobis, i.e. corporibus nostris.

564 — 59 1 . The disc of the sun cannot be much larger nor his heat much
less than they appear to our senses ; for we observe that the size of
fires on earth does not diminish to our vie^v so long as we can see

NOTES. 75

tkeir light at all and feel their heat. The sanie is irue,for the same

reaso7i, ofthe moon and siars.
The argument seems to us false and the conclusion ludicrous. This
belief was peculiar to the Epicureans. Seneca, a Stoic, writes thus
(Nat. Quaest. i 3 10): solem, quem toio terrarum orbe maiorem prohat
raiio, acies nosira sic contraxit ui sapientes viri pedalem (a foot long)
esse contenderent. And Cicero, who was a contemporary of Lucr.,
ridicules the theory in almost the same words (Acad. ii 82): quantulus
nobis sol videiur! mihi quidem quasi pedalis. Epicurus autem posse
putai etiam minorem esse eum quam vidcaiur. See Introduct. p. xxv.

564. nimio=-mtdio\ common in Plautus in this sense.

566. quibus and cumque make up one word. ignes : nom.

567. adicere: iacio when compounded {-iicio) loses its initial i,
though the preposition (in this case ad) remains long ; comp. obiciens
1. 755. vaporem : see n. to 1. 236.

568. illa, sc. spaiia. inte)~vallis : abl. of cause.

569. nil: see n. to 1. 265. ad speciem, 'to tlie eye' ; here species =
6\j/is, in 1. 94 it = eI5oj.

571. loca, sc. corporum nostrorum.

572. hinc, 'from the earth'. filum, 'size'.

574. nil adeo, 'nothing whatever' ; adeo often emphasises the word
it follows, but with negatives it is rare ; nil adeo recurs vi 1 1 70 ; nec
adeo, Virg. Ecl. ii 25, Aen. iv 96.

vere, ' in their real dimensions ', goes with videri.

e^yj. quidquid id esi, ' however that be ' ; again, 1. 1252.

nilo, 'bynothing'; abl. of amount of difference.

578. The whole sentence is : quam ea figura, qua cernimus hinam
ferri, esse videiur.

579. prius : join with quam in 1. 581.

580. specie confusa, 'blurred in appearance'; a different sense of
species from 1. 569.

581. minui, sc. videatur. necesse esi commonly is followed by the
subj. (here videaiur, 1. 584) without ui.

583, 584. ' must be seen in the sky by us on earth exactly as it is
defined by its outlines and of the size it actuaUy is'. The meaning
would be clearer if we had necesse sii notaia utcutnque nobis videtur.
ui and cumqiie make up one word. est belongs to notaia ; see n. to I. 90.

584. qitanla quania^quatiiacunque, just as quisqtiis^quicunque.

76 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

585. qiioscumque: the antecedent is eos to be supplied as subject to
posse, 1. 590.

587. tretnor, sc. eorum. ccrnitur, ' is perceived '.

588. perparvuin quidJam : internal accus. a.{ter mutare { = mutari);
comp. ni/, 1. 569.

589. alteram iitrum : commonly written as one word, altcrutram.
filum, 'size', is subject to videtur.

591. parte: abl. of amount of difference, as quo and pauxillo are
above.

592 — 613. // is possible to explain the great heat of so small a body as
the sun in any of three ways. Either all the hccU of the world
streams to that one spot ; or perhaps the heat is due to the air ivhen
fired by the sun; or perhaps there is round the sutt a great deal of
heat which emits no light.

593. ille sol, *yon sun'; so ille coniectus, 1. 416.

594. quod (the relative) = tantum ut and is therefore followed
by the consec. subj. compleat. rigando, ' by flooding them'; comp.
inrigat 1. 282.

596 is omitted in the text as it is only 1. 584 repeated by mistake.

597. hinc, i.e. e sole. unum,=Tov fiovov, not Tiva.

598. scatere: see n. to 1. 40. lumen is object to erumpcre, which
is usually intransitive. Comp. 1. 952.

600. conicctus eorum, 'the mass of them thrown together',

601. capite, ' fountain head '. hic is the pronoun, not an adv.

603. campis : local ablative.

604. etiiimquoque: pleonastic; comp. 1. 153. non mapio, 'a\i\iO\x^
not great'. ab igni: see n. to ab ictu 1. 358.

605. percipiat, 'may take possession of; a rare meaning of the
word. Comp. iii 28 me . . .voluptas percipit atque horror, for which
Cicero would have said, percipio voluptatem.

606. ita : to be taken with ut below.

608. quod genus: see n. to 1. 428. segetes stipulamque: acc. after
accidere, though accidcre usually is followed by in or ad with acc.
6ri. fervoribus: abl. of description.
613. tantum, 'merely ', qualifies aestifer; the ignis gives no light.

614 — 649. There are two ways in which it is possible to account for the
annttal course of the sun in heaven andfor thefact that hc perjorms

NOTES. 77

in n year the satne jotirney ivhich ihe moonperforms in a month.
Either, as Democritus held, the heavenly bodies nearest the earth go
slowest, because they are least affectcd by the revolution of the sky, so
that the stars niove faster than the sun, and the sun than the moon.
Or the motions of all the heavenly bodies may be due to currents
of air, blowing first in one direction, then in another.
For an explanation of the technical terms used in this paragraph,
see plan of the celestial sphere on p. xxvi.

614. ratio, 'explanation'. There are several possible explanations
of the sun's annual motion as there are of his heat.

615. partibus, 'positions'. aegocerotis (Greek for capricorni) goes
•wi\\\.ftexus belov\r.

616. Jlexus, 'turning-point', = W(?to below ; the metaphor is from
a race where the chariots turned at the meta for the retum journey.

617. solstitiales : there are two solstices in the year, when the
sun is furthest from the equator in winter, and again in summer ; see
p. xxviii ; but Latin writers often confine the term to the latter, as
here, using bruma or hiemps as the opposite to solstitium ', comp. Virg.
Georg. i 100 humida solstitia atque hieines orale serenas.

618. lunaque: i.e. et quo pacto luna etc.

619. in quo cursu may be transl. 'in traversing which'.

621. vel cum primis, lit. 'even with the first', i.e. ' very probably'.

622. 'the revered judgment of the sage, Democritus '.
Democritus, the ' laughing' philosopher ', was born at Abdera in

Thrace about 460 B.c. His learning was astonishing for his time,
especially in physics. Lucr. refers to him again in the same respectful
terms, iii 371.

623. sint: subj., because oratio obliqua has been introduced by
ponit. propter: for position, see n. to 1. 31.

624. caeli turbine : see n. to 1. 510.

625. evanescere, sc. ponit Democritus. illius,i.Q. turbinis caeli.

626. imminui after evanescere is a hysteron proteron, i.e. we should
expect the order of the verbs to be reversed ; comp. 1. 535.

627. posteriora signa are those signs of the zodiac which at any
given time have not yet passed the sun, though they will shortly do so.

628. fervida signa are the signs of the zodiac generally, which are
nearer the revolving sphere of heaven and therefore move faster than
the sun.

629. el magis hoc litnam, sc. relinqui docet. hoc, i.e. sole.

78 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

630. abest...propinquat\ indicative in spite of the oratio ohliqua',
Lucr. is anticipating the oratio recta into which he passes at 1. 632.

631. posse, sc. lunam. tendere cursuvi, ' to keep up'.

634. circum is the adverb.

635. The moon, owing to her nearness to the earth, goes so
slowly and the signs of the zodiac so fast, that they all pass her very
rapidly; but to our eyes it seems as if she vvere passing them in the
contrary direction.

636. reviso more commonly takes a simple acc.

637. fit...ut possit—potest; pleonastic. viiindi=cacli.
transversis, ' crossing the sun's path'.

aer...alter: transl. as if this were : duo cures quorum alter...

638. alternis: adverb.

639. qui — talisut.

640. Jlexus: see n. to 1. 616.

641. et qui: as antecedent to qui, sc. altcr.

643. ratio7ie pari, 'in like manner '.

644. volvunt = volvendo faciunt . orbihts, ' orhits'.

645. aeribus: causal abl. alternis agites v/iih partibus.

647. supernis is dat. governed by divcrsas; the words may be
expanded thus : in partes contrarias eis partibus in quas superna cnnt.

648. qui is the ablative ; see n. to 1. 233. qiii minus, lit. 'how
the less', i.e. ' why not as well'.

650 — 655. Night cotnes on, either because the sun\ fires are cxhausted
by their longjourney, or becaiise the same force as made him rise now
makes him set beneath the earth.

651. ^r,'after': Plaut. Mostell. 697 nott bonust sovinus de frandio.
ultima caeli: see n. to viai cuncta 1. 739.

652. impulit, 'has struck'. cfilavit: comp. the phrase efflare
animam, 'to die*.

653. itere for itinere; Lucr. once (vi 339) has itincr for the nom.,
exactly the reverse of later usage, which has itcr, itineris.

655. orbem, *orb', but 'orbit', 1. 648; in each case the context
must determine the meaning.

656 — 679. The regular recurrence ofdawn tnay be accounted for in two
ways. Either the same sun, returning below the earth, sends his
light before him; or a new sun is born every day by the streaming

NOTES. 79

together of fires at a fixed tinie every day. If the latter explanation
be the tnie one, there is no reason to ■wonder at the regidarity of
sun-rise; for there are many instances in nature of a regular
recurrence of phenomena.

656. Matuta, or Mater Maluta, the goddess of dawn, identified by
some Latin writers with Juno, by others with Ino Leucothea, a marine
goddess. oras aetheris: see n. to 1. 85.

657. pandit, 'opensup'.

658. sub terras: acc, because the sun is in motion.

ille is in apposition with the subject sol, and serves to give it
emphasis ; a favourite idiom of Cicero.

659. anticipat governs caelum, which is understood as object to
accendere.

66i. consuerunt: three syllables by synizesis ; see n. to suo, I. 420.

662. semper, i.e. every day.

663. quodgenus: see n. to 1. 428. Idaeis: a range of mountains in
Phrygia. Other ancient writers mention this strange legend.

664. orienti is a participle, not an epithet.

665. inde: temporal.

666. in his rebus: see n. to 1. 247.

671. arbusta is used by Lucr. for drbores which his verse will not
admit, but not arbustis for arboribus; see 1. 786; so he \x%qs principioruni
as the gen. oi primordia, 1. 184.

672. cadere imperat: imperare commonly takes ut and subj., iubere
the simple inf.

673. impubem, 'theboy'.

674. pariter (going with mdlis)=pari parte, 'in equal length';
comp. i 87 infula...ex utraque pari nialarum parte profusast, 'the fiUet
fell down in equal lengths from each cheek'.

678. niundi: after origine. cecidere, 'have fallen out'.

679. conseque, 'in due sequence'. quoqtie is here used like /cai in
apodosis, e.g. (is 5' ^8o^ei> avT(^, Kal eirolTjae. redeiint, sc. res.

680 — 704. There are also several ways of explaining why days are long
and nights short in stimmer, while the reverse is true in wititer.
First we may suppose that the sun^s daily path is divided into two
parts, mz. the part below the earth and the part above ; and that
these iwo are never equal, except at the equinoxes. This will explain
why a lo7ig day niust be foLlowed by a short night, aiid vice versa ; for

ii—2

8o LUCRETTUS. BOOK V.

hcnvever miuh be suhtracted from the sun^s pcUh betuath the earth,
viz. the night, jtist as viuch tnust be added to his path above it,
viz. the day, the whole length of his path being constant. All this
you may see in a map of the heavens. Again, the long nights of
winter may be due to a thickness ofthe air in certain regions which
prevents the sun from rising. Lastly, ifwe assume that a new sun
is born every day, alternate slowness and quickness in the streaming
together of fires will account for the alternate length and shortness of
the days.
See plan on p. xxvi.

680. tabescere, 'wane'; Plaut. Stichus 648 qiiasi nix tabescit dics.

681. luces, 'days' ; soles is used in the same sense.

sumant'. see n. to 1. 63 ; it seems that Lucr. uses the subjunctive
here because he is discussing a hypothetical case.

682. sol idem : opposed to the daily created sun of another theory.

683. imparibus, 'of unequal length'; aetheris oras includes the
ether below the earth.

684. partes, 'two parts': 5i'xa T^ixvei avL<ra Tfirj/jLaTa ttjc d56v.

685. reponit, 'adds in compensation'.

686. eius, i.e. orbis. tanto plus : tantundem would be more
accurate. relatus, ' when he comes round ', i.e. from beneath the earth
or above it.

687. signum caeli, i.e. sign of ihe zodiac, the sign being the Ram
at the vemal equinox, and the Scales at the autumnal.

688. nodus anni, 'the node of the year', is the intersection of the
ecliptic (the sun's apparent annual path in the heavens) and the equator,
at the equinoxes ; see plan on p. x.wi.

689. medio cursu is abl. absol. ; with cursu, sc. solis ; medio govems
fatus. The meaning is : when the sun's daily course is due east and west.

690. 'heaven keeps his two goals apart at an equal distance'; i.e.
the distance between his rising and setting is exactly equal to that
between his setting and rising, and consequently the day is exactly equal
in length to the night. metae here are the points where the sun rises
and sets, not, as in 1. 617, the solstices.

691. signiferi orbis, 'the starry circle', i.e. the zodiac, so callcd
from the animals (fvSto) after which the constellations are named.

693. obliquo himine, ' with slanling light '.

694. ratio, 'science'.

NOTES. 8r

695. notaruni, 'have mapped out'.

697. sub terris : abl., because the sun is stopped ; comp. acc. in
1. 658.

700. dum veniat : dum expressing (as here and 1. 976) expectation
generally takes pres. or imperf. subj. ; </«»» expressing /«^<7j« always
takes subj. ; dum, 'whilst', takes pres. ind.

radiaium, ' with rays shooting from it', not merely 'beaming'.
insigne, 'ensign', 'badge'; used as a noun : again, 1. 1138.

701. sic, i.e. for the reason just mentioned, thickness of air.

703. certa, a 'particular' but not a fixed quarter.
parte is govemed by de of the verb.

704. The line in italics was written by Munro to supply a lost hne
of the original.

705 — 750. The phases of the moon may be explained in various 7uays.
She may derive her light from the sun, so that she is at the fiill
•when she is right opposite him, but gradually loses her light as she
approaches him, and is quite dark when between the earth and the
sun. Or her light may be her own, and the phases may be due to an
opaque satellite of her own which is constantly getting in her way and
shutting out her lightfrom us. Or it may be true, as the Chaldaeans
teach, that she is a sphere of which only one half is bright ; the
revolution ofsuch a sphere wouldbring about the phases we see, Or,
lastly, a fresh moon may be born every day, each with a different
phase, in regular succession; we see many thmgs come round in
regular succession, as for inslance the four seasons.
The account Lucr. gives first is the true one ; see p. xxviii ; it is quite

incompatible with his own views as to the size of the sun and moon.

707. ad spcciem : see n. to 1. 569.

708. donique=donec; donicum is another old form, common in
Plautus. contra: preposition. pleno bene, 'right full'; comp. vi 507
bene multa.

709. super and edita form one word. It is the case that the moon,
when full, rises about sunset.

710. retro quasi condere lumen, 'reversing as it were her course,
to hide her light' ; the expression is exceedingly condensed.

711. debet, 'shemust', i.e. on this theory.

712. The moon, like the sun, travels through the zodiac but not ii
the same orbit. signorum orbis = signifer orbis of h 691.

713. faciunt, 'make her do' ; as subj. io faciunt, supply ii.

82 LUCRETIUS. ROOK V.

714. cursus viam, 'the path of her orbit' ; com\>. iler viai,\. 1124.

715. esl quare possit means no more than fotesL

716. volvier=volvi\ comp. dignarier, 1. 51.
formas, 'phases'.

718. omnimodis : see n. to 1. 190.

719. potis est: see n. to 1. 560.

720. A third explanation. potest, sc. luna. si forte=fortasse,
'possibly'. globus pilai, 'a round ball'.

721. parti: archaic abl. ; see n. to orbi 1. 74.

723. donique : see n. to 708. partem, 'half.

ignibus aucta, 'illuminated' ; comp. the phrase augcri filio (Cic. ad
Att. 121; Tac. Agr. vi 3).

724. ad speciem : see n. to 1. 569.

725. retro goes with contorquet.

726. glom. atque pilai=globi pilai of 1. 720 ; it is a hendiadys.

727. Chaldaeutn : gen. pUu. The Chaldaei (vulgarly called tiiathe-
matici) were the successors of Berosus, a priest of Belus in Babylon
about 250 B.c. ; they were soothsayers and astrologers, and therefore
disliked by the scientific astronomers, the astrologi of 1. 728.

728. artem, 'thesystem'. The aj/r<?/(?f ? gave the right explanation
of the moon's phases, which Lucr. puts first (11. 705 — 714), though he
will not allow it greater probability. contra, 'in opposition', adverb;
it often = 'in exchange'.

729. pugnat, 'fights for'.

730. The order is : aut {quasi) sit cur hoc minus illo atisis amplectier.

731. cur nequeat is an indirect question, depending on doccre 1. 735.
semper, 'every day'.

732. This does not mean that each separate moon goes through all
the phases, but that each moon represents one phase.

733. pi-ivos : see n. to 1. 274.

734. parte is strangely used in the sense of loco.

735. vincere—convincere; comp. Virg. Georg. iii 289 vcrbis ea
vincere, Hor. Sat. i 3 115 «^c vincet ratio hoc.

yjy — <^47 describe a kind of masque or pageant of the seasons,
which are used as an example of the regularity of natural phenomena.

737. it, 'goes on its way'.

738. The 'winged harbinger of Venus' is Cupid.
propter governs vestigia ; for its position see n. to 1. 31.

739' quibus, i.e. Veneri et Vencris praenuntio. ante, ' in frout of

NOTES. 83

them'. With viai cuncta, comp. ultima caeli 1. 651, caerula mundi
1. 771.

The order is : first the West Wind, then Flora his wife, then Cupid,
and last Venus and Spring. The Latin name of Zephyrus is Favonius ;
Pliny and Columella say that this wind always began to blow on
Feb. 7th and marked the beginning of spring.

740. Notice the assonance in this fine line which has somewhat of
the effect of rhyme. Lucr. is thinking especially of the beauty and
fragrance of the rose which was the spring flower of the Romans ; comp.
i 1 74 vere 7-osam, frumenta calore, vites autumno fnndi suadente videmus.

741. ifide loci: see n. to 1. 443. una : adverb.

742. Harvest being in summer, Virgil (Georg. i 66) speaks of
aestas pulverulenta.

743. autumnus: the season of fruit and especially of the grape;
Martial uses the word as = 'fruit', and also = 'wine'. Eiihius Euan\
both words (which may be retained in translating) are Greek names of
Bacchus, and are derived from euot, the cry of the Bacchanals ; comp.
Eur. Bacch. 157 efta rhv eviov ayaWd/^evai. de6v.

744. tempestates, 'seasons'; so 1. 1395.

745. altitonans, 'loud-roaring'. Volturnus is the Greek Eurus and
blew from the quarter where the winter sun rose, according to Seneca,
Nat. Quaest. v i6 4.

746. bruma is contracted from brevima{-=-brevissimd), ' the shortest
day '. pigrum, 'numbing' ; the word is used of stagnant water, and
of a sullen expression.

747. hanc is governed by sequitur.

748. certo tempore, i.e. every day.

749. tusus — rtirsus.

751 — 770. Eclipses of the sun may be explained by supposing that the
moon shuts off his light froni us ; or else it may be some invisible
body which gets between ; or lastly the sun's rays may be quenchedby
passing through air that is hostile to them. And you have a similar
choice of explanations to accountfor eclipses ofthe moon.

751. item quoque: comp. etiatn quoque, 1. 604.
latebras, ' obscurations ' .

754. a terris, 'on the earthward side', viz. of the sun; comp. ai
nei-vis \. 1332.

84 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

capitt is the moon's own head. ei, i.e. soli.

755. caecum, 'dark', 'opaque', not 'sightless'.

756. tempore eodef?i = tamen\ so ititerea, 11. 83, 394.
aliud corpus is subject io putetur, id is object to /acere.

putetur is after cur, 1. 753 ; for the construction, see n. to 1. 1045.

758. languidus must be taken as part of the predicate, as if the text
were languescere et dimittere.

759. recreareque: the Augustan poets do not attach que to a
short e.

761 . interstingui, ' to be quenched for a time ' ; so interquiescere, * to
rest for a time'.

762. He proceeds to deal with lunar eclipses, giving first the true
explanation and then two alternatives, all which he asserts to be equally
probable. vicissim, i.e. as the moon hid the sun's light.

763. et oppressum etc. : ' and moreover herself to keep the sun sup-
pressed', i.e. to prevent him from lighting up the moon. super=
insuper.

764. menstrtia, sc. luna, 'the moon in her monthly course'. rigi-
das, 'clearly defined'. coni umbras, 'the conical shadow', viz. of the
earth ; the gen. serves as an epithet ; see nn. to 11. 369, 1 193.

Lucr. seems here to say that the moon passes through the earth's
shadow every month ; this would only be true if the moon's path and
the sun's were in the same plane, so that once in each month the three
bodies would be in a straight line; see p. xxviii.

765. tempore eodem : see n. to I. 756. succurrere, ' to pass beneath ' ;
usually, 'to help'.

766. orbem, 'orb'. The sun is supposed to be below the earth, at
the time when the moon is eclipsed.

767. quod=tale ut. radios, sc. solis.

768. et tamen, 'and after all' ; see n. to 1. 1096.

770. per governs loca ; inimica makes the separation less harsh.
propriis, i.e. not derived from the sun.

77 1 — 782. Now that I have explaimd the motions ofthe heavenly bodies
and their eclipses, I go back to describe the primeval earth and its
first products.

111. quod superest: see n. to 1. 64. cacrula tmmdi: comp
cuncta viai I. 739.

772. quicquid: see n. to 1. 131.

773. cursus is governcd by cicrct.

NOTES. 85

776. quove : see n. to 1. 71. offecto: Lucr. elsewhere uses a
personal passive of officere, though the verb does not take an acc.

777. neqite opinantes: the common form is necopinans, in one
word.

778. luniine, 'eye'; keeping up the metaphor of conivent and
convisunt.

780. nunc redeo: the digression began at 1. 509.

et mollia etc, ' and to the tender age of the fields of earth '.

781. Before quid, sc. et doceo. luminis oras : see n. to 1. 85.

782. crerint [creverint)=decrerint ; in 1. 393 cernere = decernere in
a rather different sense. Comp. Virg. Aen. xi 560 quae nunc dubiis
committitur auris.

783 — 820. The eartk brought forth grass and trees first of all and then
living creatures of all kinds. N^either sky nor sea had anyihing to
do with the first creation of men ; mother earth herself brought
tkem forth, first birds, and then men who sprang from the earth
and were fed by a moisture like milk, issuing from the ground.
At that time there was no severe weather to trouble the first-created
men.

783. principio, ' in the beginning '.

785. fulserunt : this aorist, and others in the context, seem to imply
that all this came to pass very quickly.

786. arboribus: for nom. Lucr. uses arbusta: see n. to 1. 671.
variis, ' of different kinds '.

787. inmissis habenis, 'with unbridled luxuriance'; the metaphor
is imitated by Virgil, Georg. ii 364; comp. 6^vT4pcp x«^"'V» Soph.
Antig. 109.

788. primum, i.e. as soon as beasts and birds are bom.

789. pennipotentum, ' of the strong of wing ', i.e. birds; this is one
of the many Lucretian compounds which Virgil did not care to use.

791. inde loci: see n. to 1. 443. mortalia saecla here includes the
lower animals as well as men, though it usually = w^jr/a/^j and excludes
the mutae pecudes et saeclaferarum; so 11. 805, 988, 1169, 1238.

794. terrestria is not a mere epithet \)\x\. = quia terrestria sunt.
lacunis, sc. maris.

795. linquitur: impers. Ofthefour elements one, fire, can have
no claim, and Lucr. has dismissed the claim of two others; the only
remaining hypothesis is that earth is the general mother.

86 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

796. sit bclongs to adepta above ; see n. to 1. 90.

797. existunt terris, 'spring out of the earth'; comp. 1. 69.

798. cdncreta: see n. to crctus 1. 6. vapore: see n. to 1. 236.
It was long believed that horse-hairs sealed up in a bottle of water
became eels, but modem science seems to have exploded this theory.

800. aethere, sc. novo. adulta is neut. plur.

801. alituum: said to be a lengthened form of alitum, gen. plur.
of ales. variae, 'of different kinds' ; but, Petron. 28, pica varia, 'a
pied magpie ' ; Hor. Sat. i 8 42 varia colubra, ' a spotted snake '.

802. exclusae: comp. Hamlet 5 i 310 'the female dove, when
that her golden couplets are disclosed\ The ' couplets ' are the two
young pigeons.

tevipore: temporal abl.; so a^j/a/^ below.

803. teretes, 'smooth and round '. Comp. iv 58, where Lucr. writes
tunicas iox folliculos.

804. victum vitainque, ' a living and life '. The two words are
often so joined; see U. 1080, 1105.

805. tibi, 'you must know'; ethicaldat. ; see nn. to 11. 260,
294.

mortalia saecla: see n. to 1. 791.

807. hoc, ' therefore', lit. 'by this'; so ti2 is often used in Homer.
dabatur, ' offered itself '.

808. a/>ti, ' clasping ' ; particip. of apisci, to be distinguished from
aptus, particip. of apere, for which see n. to 1. 537 ; the latter would
govem a dative.

809. aestus is the heat inside the wombs caused by the growth of
the infants.

810. fugiens and petessetts ought strictly to be gen. plur. ; the latter
is an archaic frequentative hom petere.

Si I. ibi is used for ad eum locum, i.e. ad uteros.
812. cogebat, sc. terram.

815. i?npetus ille alimenti, 'that current of nutriment'; ille, i.c.
which served to feed the child before it was bom.

817. abundans vi {txam\Xi&.

818. ciebat: here of second conjugation: see n. to 1. 211.

819. viribus: abl. of description.

820. The children were feeble, but so were the winds and hot and
cold weather.

821 — 836. Thus mother earth gave birth to vten and all kinds oj

NOTES. 87

animah and birds. But at length she ceased bearing, by the law of
eterttal change in all things; or at least the things which she bears
now are no longer the same.

821. etiam atque etiam, 'again and again I say'.

823, animal: the only place where Lucr. uses the sing. of this
substantive; he uses instead animans (fem.) and both animalia and
animantes as plural.

825. variantibu! fo7-t?iis = varias, the common epithet of birds; see
n. to 1. 801.

826. debet, ' she is bound '.

827. spatio...vetusto\ so Aristophanes (Frogs 347) speaks of irt]
TraXaid.

829. ex alio, ' after another ' ; comp. Ik in such phrases as ti;^X6s
kK SedopK&TOS.

830. sui is gen. of the pronoun. migrant, ' change their place '.

831. vertere=verti; so convertere 1. 1422, turbare 1. 504, mutare
1. 588, volventia 1. 931, are all used intransitively.

833. contemptibus, ^iisXo^ tsiziQ\

834. mundi naturaf?i : see n. to 1. 59.

835. alter is used for alius; comp. autre in French.

836. The full sentence is : quod potuit fe7're terra, niinc nequit ferre,
ut possit ferre quod non tulit ante; i.e., the earth ceases to bring forth
certain things that it may be able to bring forth certain others.

837 — 850. The earth gave birth also in the bcginning to all kinds of
monsters ; btit these were not fitted to exist and nature destroyed
them before they came to matwity.

838. coorta is neut. plur.

839. androgynum: usually hermaphroditum, a corapound formed
from the names of the two Greek deities.

interutrasque, i.e. inter marem etfeminam; adv.; see n. to 1. 472.

nec utrutn = non utrum or neutrum ; comp. Mart. v 20 n tiunc
vivit necutcr sibi. nec is an old form of negative; so necopinans
(see n. to 1. ii^^ — non opinans.

utrimque = ab tttroqtie.

840. parti7ti = notmulla, ' some of them ' ; again.ll. 1083, 1143, 1310,
in the same sense.

viduata simply = j/wif, like privata, 1. 317. The gen. tnattutttii in-
stead of the abl. ttianibus is a Greek construction.

88 LUCRETJUS. BOOK V.

84 1 . voltu = oculis.

844. qtwd foret usus, 'what they had need of; usus est com-
monly takes abl., sometimes, as here, acc. of reference, ' that in respect
of which there was need ' ; see n. to 1. 1053.

S47. cupitum aetcUis florem : so in Pindar evdvdenos <pv6. and
Tfpirvas Kapirbs ^/3as express the same thing.

848. ^er Veneris res, ' in marriage '.

849. This is the only hypermetric line in Lucr. ; i.e., its last
syllable is cut off before the first of the next line; such lines are less
rare in Virgil, but unkiiown to Homer.

rebus is dat. commodi.

850. propagando here, \ivX prSpagando 1. 856.

possint, sc. res. procudere, ' to continue ' ; the metaphor is from
forging metal.

855 — 877. Such wild animals as have not become extinct owe their
preservaiion either to pecidiar courage, craft, or speed; the lion, the
fox, and the deer are familiar examples. The domestic animals owe
their safety to our protection which we give because they are useful to
us. All animals, which could not protect themselves and were useless
to man, have become extinct.

855. animantum = animalium\ see n. to 1. 823.

857. vesci, ' feed on '; for a different sense, see 1. 72.
vitalibus auris, ' the breath of Hfe '.

858. aut denique: comp. Hor. Sat. i 2 133 ne nummi pereant aut
puga aut denique fama.

est goes with tutata below ; see n. to 1. 90.

859. tutata reservans: see n. to 1. 109.
861. manent, ' continue to exist '.

863. dolus, sc. tutatus est.

864. fido cum pectore: see n. to 1. 352. Dogs accompanied the
kings in the Odyssey and the Aeneid, and the death of the faithful
Argos is one of the most pathetic scenes in Homer (Od. xvii 290 — 327) ;
Plato finds in the dog the qualities proper for the guardians of his ideal
state (Rep. 376) ; comp. too Martiars epitaph (xi 69) on Dexter's dog,
Lydia, domino fidissima Dextro.

865. veterino, ' burden carrying ', connected by the Latin gram-
marians with veho; hence our ' veterinary '. semine: abl. of origin.

866. bucerus is ^iovKipus vvith Latin terminations.

NOTES. 89

869. pahula parta : acc. , governed by secuta sunt.

labore, ' toil ', viz. to get food ; for we make them undergo other
toil.

870. prae??iia, 'as reward '. causa { = x^P'-'') governs utilitatis.

871. quis is dat. plur. horum, ' of these qualities '.

872. possent is consec. subj.

873. quare = quamobrem.

874. praesidio nostro, ' under our protection '.

875. scilicet, 'you must know'; the original sense of the word,
which is merely sci licet, Ut. ' know ! you are allowed ' ; comp. ilicet,
vidtlicet. praedae lucroque: predicative datives; see 1. 539.

876. The vincla are their own natural limitations which made it
impossible for them to survive.

This ' survival of the fittest' is one of the central ideas of Darwinism.

878 — 924. But there never Tucre and never can be creatures which
tinite in one form the iimbs and natures of two diffei-eftt animals.
Take for instance ihe Centatir or man-horse: stuh a creature can
never have existed, as the maturity of the horse coincides with the
infancy of man and the matuiity of man with the old age of the
horse. So too of the Scylla, half-woman, half-fish, and of the
Chimaera, a combinalion of the lion, goat, and dragon. It is true
that the early ivorld produccd many things, but it never could
produce creatures that combine two or more incompatible natures.

879. bino, ' twofold ' ; the distributive bini is occasionally used in
the singular as an adj. with this meaning. Comp. unis I. 897.

880. compacta, ' things put together ', contains the subject to
queunt.

881. hinc illinc, lit. ' from this, from that', i.e., 'from the two
halves '.

non...potissit: i.e. non potis sit, satis par esse, 'cannot be sufficiently
alike '. potissit is subj. of potis est.

882. licet, sc. tibi. hinc, iK rovSe, 'from what follows'.

883. circum is separated from actis by tmesis; see n. to 1. 287.
impiger is part of the predicate.

884. haudquaquam, sc.fioret.

885. ubera niammarum lactantia, ' milk of the breast '.

886. senecta is an adj.

go LUCRRTTUS. BOOK V.

888. tum demum, rbrf ■^Srj, ' only then'. puero illi, ' for that boy',
i.e. the boy mentioned above.

890. neforte...credas : see n. to 1. 114. veterino : see n. to 1. 865.

892. The Scylla is described by Homer (Od. xii 86 — 100); but
he does not make her desinere in piscem, and all he says of dogs is that
her voice was like that of a new-born puppy ; but Catullus (60 2), Virgil
(Aen. iii 426), and Ovid (Met. xiv 60), agree with the description of
Lucr. semiviarinis : i.e. the lower part of her body was that of a fish.

894. discordia is an adj.

896. proiciunt, sc. robora. See n. to adicere, 1. 567.

897. simili Venere, ' with like passions'. unis : the plur. of
unus is rare, as one might expect, but classical.

898. convenitint : the impers. constr. is much commoner in this
sense, convejiit vobis or inter vos, not convenitis. sitnt, sc. eis ; a
co-ordinate clause is substituted for a second relative clause ; this is the
normal construction in Greek ; e.g. outos tv etdov Kal eKiXevffa airrbv
Xaipeiv, ' whom I saw and to whom I said good-morning'. per artus,
' throughout their frames'.

901. cum, 'since'.

902. genus omne, ' any V.mdi^

903. visceris, 'of flesh'; in Lucr. this word, both sing. and plur.,
does not mean ' entrails', but all between the skin and bones; comp.
Plaut. Mil. Glor. 30

per corium, per viscera,
perque os (the bone) elephanti transmineret bracchium.

904. qui is abl. : see n. to 1. 233. und agrees with chimaera, as do
piima, postrema and media below.

905. prima leo, 'in front a lion'. media ipsa, lit. 'in the middle,
itself,' i.e. a x^l^°-^P^ or goat. The line is translated from Hom. II. vi
181, irpbffde \iwv 6indev dk dpdKOJv fiiffffT) 5k x^M-^^tfX"" In the legend
Bellerophon, the master of the horse Pegasus, killed this formidable
creature.

907. The ablatives absolute go vfithgigni.

909. novitatis: gen. of definition ; so munere belli, 1. 1308.

911. dicat, sc. licet, ' may say'. aurea is part of the predicate,
* with gold '.

912. arbusta = arbores ; see n. to I. 671. suesse is contracted from
suevisse.

913. impcte, * strength and size'; see n. to 1. 200.

NOTES. 91

914. fedum nisiis ponen, 'to tread firmly'.
916. quod, ' the fact that'.

918. signi: partitive gen., or gen. of divided whole ; so /m in the
phrase inde loci, inde being = a^ eo,

919. inter se goes with niixtas. compacta, 'formed into a single
frame'.

92 1 . laeta, ' luxuriant ' ; a constant epithet of pabida and gramina.

922. complexa is here passive, zsperplexa always is, from complecto ;
complecti is commonly deponent.

923. cmnes, sc. res.

925 — 987. Men were much more hardy then than now. They did not

know agriculture of any kind, but ate the acorns and berries wkich

the woods supplied and drank the water of the mountain streams.

They did not know the use of fire or of clothing, nor had they any

idea of acting in concert with one another. They ttsed to hunt wild

beasts and sleep naked on beds of leaves. As they had always been

accMstomed to see night succeed day, they were not frightened by the

darkness, but rather by the wild beasts uuhich often drove them froni

their caves and beds of leaves.

Bagehot, Physics and Politics, p. 15, says 'Perhaps it is the most

valuable, as it is clearly the most certain result of prehistoric ethnology,

that it has dispelled the dreams of other days as to a primitive high

civilisation'. We see that Lucretius did not share those dreams.

926. durius, 'more hardy'. quod is the relative, and takes the
subj. {creasset) because '\\. = quippe quod.

927. ossibus, ' upon bones' ; so fundatum aevo 1. 161.

928. aptum, particip. of apere, agrees with genus.
viscera: see n. to 1. 903. nervis, vevpoLS, 'sinews'.

929. Take quod {=tale ut) as first word in the sentence; facile is
adv. modifying caperetur ; for the order of words, comp. nec facere ut
possent 1. 843, and nec ipsa sponte sua possent ut vivere 1. 871. This
sense of caperetur is seen in such a phrase as oculis captus, ' blind'.

930. labi: see n. to orbi 1. 74.

931. volventia = volvenda of 1. 514; this particip. is often used as
livolvere were intransitive ; comp. the verbs quoted in n. to 1. 831.

934. scibat is an archaic form for sciebat which the metre will not
admit ; so accibant, 1. 996. Owing to the character of the narrative,
there are a very large number of imperfects here ; and the form in
•iebam very often involves a cretic {- ^ -).

92 LUCRETTUS. BOOK V.

935. defodere, ' to dig down', hence ' to plant'. The line is repeated
almost exactly, I. 1366.

936. veterts is opposed to nova in the line before.

938. donutn, 'boon'.

939. curabant corpora, ' they would refresh their bodies', i.e. eat.
corporis cura often includes exercise and the cares of the toilet ; but
these latter must have been unknown to the early men with their naked
and squalid limbs. Comp. Hor. Sat. ii 2 80 curata manbra.

942. plurima, 'in great number', is part of the predicate.

945. sedare...vocabant: the inf. after vocare is rare and poetical:
Hor. Od. ii 18 38, levare...vocatus.

946. decursus aquai : evidently a favourite phrase ; comp. 1. 263.

947. claru^ is nom. sing. masc. ; transl. by adverb.

948. nota...silvestria: see n. to divina antiqua 1. 13.

templa, 'haunts'; see n. to 1. 103. By the haunts of the nymphs he
means wild rocky places.

949. quibits e: for the order, comp. inimica per, 1. 770.

950. lubrica agrees with saxa. Notice the alliteration.

951. umida saxa: comp. 11. 298, 299; this kind of repetition is
common in all poets ; see especially M. Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum.

952. partim, 'some of the water'. plano is an epithet oi campo.
For scatere (which is governed by scibant, 1. 949) see n. to I. 40.

953. igni is the archaic abl. ; see n. to orbi 1. 74.

954. spoliis, i.e. skins ; exuviae is often used in this sense.
965- Comp. 1. 992.

957. There is similar alliteration, 1. 217.

958. commune boniim spectare, ' to consider the common weal', i.e.
to take thought for the whole community.

959. moribus, 'customs'. inter se goes with uti.

Comp. Bagehot, Physics and Politics, p. 21 'rigid, definite, concise
law is the primary want of early mankind'. The book is an excellent
one to read together with this narrative of Lucr. ; one is astonished to
find how often the ancient poet agrees with modern science.

960. qiiod praedae = id praedae quod; praedae is gen. of divided
whole, or partitive gen. ; comp. signi, 1. 918.

961. sibi valere, 'to be strong for himself, i.e. to use his strehgth
for himself. doctus : participle.

964. quamque, %c. feminam.

O'^?. glandes, arbita, and pira are in apposition with pretium.

NOTES. 93

968. viissilibus saxis, ' with showers of stones'.
magno pondere clavae=clavd niagni ponderis; comp. levisomna
canum corda, 1. 864.

970. subu^ : dat. of sus, suis. sic = sicui eratit, dicnrep elxov, 'just
as they were', 'without any previous preparation'. silvestria membra,
'their savage limbs'; silvestria is the same word as 'savage' coming
through the Ital. selvaggio; so Milton speaks of a savage, i.e. wooded,
hUl.

971. ntida dabanf. the MSS. have nudabant, which must be wrong,
as Lucr. has just said that the men wore no clothes.

972. circum is the adverb.

973. For this idea, that the first inhabitants of the earth must have
feared the sun would never rise a second time, see Blanco White's
fine sonnet which begins :

Mysterious Night ! when our first parent knew
Thee from report divine and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue ?

975. respectabant=expectabant\ comp. vi \^-i,i funera respectans.

976. duni . . .inferret : see n. to dum veniat, 1. 700.

977. aparvis, iK -rralSuv, 'from childhood'.

979. non erat ut fieri posset=non poterat fieri ; see 1. 126. mii-a-
rier { — mirari) is used as a noun, and is subject to posset ; so is diffidere;
comp. Hor. Ep. i 7 27 reddes dulce loqui, reddes ridere decorum.

980. difiidei-e, 'misgiving'; followed by acc. and inf., 1, 1157.

982. curae (sc. w) is predicative dat., like oneri 1. 539.

983. infestam is predicate. quietem, 'their time of rest'; per
quietem, 'in sleep', is a common phrase in Suetonius; or perhaps 'their
place of rest' ; as Lucr. (i 405) speaks of intectae fronde qitictes.

985. adventu^propter adventum; causal abl.

986. intempesta nocte, vvKrbs d,u)pi, ' at dead of night'. The
epithet is thus explained by Varro, a contemporary of Cicero and the
most learned of the Romans: cum tempus agendi est nullum.

987. hospitibus saevis: i.e. the boars and lions.

988 — loio. Men did not die then in much greater numbers than now.

It is true that more men were seized and devoured by wild beasts,

and those who escaped with wounds did not know how to cure them;

but no great armies or fieets perished in a single day. The sea was

D. 9

94 LUCREriUS. BOOK V.

nol a sonrcc o/ death as no one venlured npon it. fVant may Itave
killed soine, as hixttry does now; and some sivalloived poisons nn-
aiuares which 7ve now nse as medicines.

9SS. ni/nio plus, ' more l^y much ' ; it commonly means 'too much',
as in ilor. Od. i 33 i ne doleas plns nimio. tnortalia saecla: sce n. to
1. 791.

989. lahentis, 'ebbing ' ; for the alliteration and also for the matler,
comp. Gray's ' nor cast one longing hngering look behind '.

990. magis, sc. quam nunc.

991. hauslus, 'torn', a rather strange but cjuite common use of
haurire; comp. II. 1069, 1324.

993. vivo Intsto, i.e. the animars maw. viscera: see n. to 1. 903.
Notice the alliteration, which has a pathetic effect.

996. accibant: see n. to scibat I. 934. Orcns or Dis is the Latin
deity who corresponds to IlXoi^rwj', the god of the lower world.

997. donique : see n. to I. 708; the plpf. after donec is unexampled
in Lucr. vermina, ' gripings '.

998. vellent, ' needed ', viz. for cure.

999. virum: gen. plur. sub signis ducta, ' marching beneath their
staiidards'. inilia should always be spelt with one /, the rule being
that when a long vowel is foUowed by //, one / is withdrawn where an
/ follows, (unless this i be merely tlie mark of a case, e.g. villa villis);
so mille but milia, villa but vilicus, Messalla but Messalina.

1000. Comp. I. 95.

1002. hic = tum; so 1. 432. temere incassttm frustra, ' without
aim, purpose, or result ' ; a very pleonastic expression, as all three
words express nearly the same idea.

1003. saevibat: see n. to scibat, I. 934.

1005. in fraudem, ' to his hurt' ; this sense oi fraus is common in
old legal formulas where sine fraude esto = a.Q^ov dyai in Greek laws.
ridentibus : so Aesch. Prom. 89 itovtIuv re Kv/jLciTuv dvrjpidfxov y^Xafffia,

1006. improba ratio, ' the reckless art '. caeca, ' hidden '.

1007. tum deinde, ' at that time too '.

1008. contra: adverb. mersat, sc. membra.

1009. inprzidentes, aKovres, ' unwittingly ' ; comp. Virg. Georg.
{1152 nec miseros fallunt aconita legentes.

loio. 'now doctors prescribe and administer it with more skill'.
The reading in the text is that of Professor Palraer for nudant sollertius

NOTES. 95

ipsi of the MSS. AU medicines are poison ; and Lucr. is contrasting
the skill of doctors, in graduating a dose of what would be fatal in
large quantities, with the ignorance which led uncivilised men to poison
themselves. dare and uti are both technically used of doctors. From
diSovai, which is used like dare, comes our 'dose'.

loii — 1027. //exi they came to use huts, skins, andfire which softcned
their bodies, tvhile family life and the caresses of children made them
less harsh and cruel. The next step -ivas friendship among neigh-
bours, and agreements which, ifnot in all cases, at least in many,
were respected.

lon. ignemque: the discovery of fire is described in detail below
(II. 1091 — 1104); after finishing his first sketch of the narrative, Lucr.
seems to have thought more should be said on so important a subject.
Darwin says ' the discovery of fire, probably the greatest, excepting lan-
guage, made by man, dates from before the dawn of history '.

1012. The line in italics was writtfin by Munro to supply the place
of a lost line of the original.

lecti socialia iura, ' the binding ties of wedlock '.

1014. primum is an adverb.

1015. curavit=effecit; often so used by Lucr.

1016. non ita iam, ovk^ti bixolws, ' no longer as before'. non
iam = ovK^Ti, nondum = o\iTrw.

1018. ingeniufn fregere superbitm, ' broke down the haughty
temper '.

1020. inter se goes with iungere. Compare the account given in
Plato (Rep. 358 e) of the origin of justice : SoKei XvcrtTeXe?»' ^wOiffdai
dXXiJXots /t^r' ddiKelv fi-qT^ ddiKeiffdai.

I03I. comtnendartent, sc. homines supplied out oi fnitimi; ' men
asked protection for '.

1022. batbe, ' stammeringly ', properly applies only to the ptteri;
comp. Hor. Ep. ii i 126 os tenerum pueri balbiimque. significarent,
sc. pueri et mulieres.

1023. imbecillorum : misereri takes a genitive, miserari an accu-
sative.

1024. omnimodis, 'without exception'; for the formation of the
word, see n. to 1. 190.

1025. bona magnaque^bene magna; comp. pleno hene, 1. 708.
caste= intemerate.

9—2

96 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1026. a«/, ' or else '. /azw /«;«,' thus early '.

1027. prifpago: nom. sing. ; for quantity of verb, see n. to 1. 850.

1028 — 1090. Language arose from a natural instinct to denote
different things by different names. Children try to speak before
tJiey are able to do so, Jiist as young animals instinctively exert
their peculiar pcnvers. It is not true that some one man invented
the names of things and taught everyone else; no single man could
have conceived such an idea, nor would others have been willing to
learn from him. There is nothing in the origin of language to
sta-prise us, ifwe reflect that even animals express different emotions
in quite different tones ; this may be observed in dogs, horses, and
birds of many kinds.

This question was much discussed by the ancients, whether the
names of things were arbitrarily fixed or arose naturally, whether
they were due to Oeffii or <f)vais. The view of Lucretius is shared hy
Darwin.

1029. mittere, ievai, ' to utter ' ; the inf. after subegit is unusual for
ut and subj., though normal after cogere. utilitas seems to be used lilce
Xpeia, in the sense of 'need'. expressit, ' wrung out of them '.

1030. Comp. 1. 460. videtur is passive.

1031. infantia, 'inability to speak ', the original meaning of the
word; so infans, 1. 223.

1033. vim : the acc. after titor and its compounds and such verbs
a.sfruor, fungor, potior, is an archaism.

qtioad { = quatenus) is one syllable by synizesis,
abuti=uti; comp. airoxpv^^Oai. abuti oken = KaTaxpr]<^Oai.

1035. ii/is, i.e. frontibus inermibus. petit: comp. Hor. Sat. ii i
52 dente lupiis, cornu taurus petit.

1036. cKv^i.voi. is the Greek equivalent of catuli.

1037. iam tum: as in 1. 1026.

1039. alititum: see n. to 1. 801.

1040. tremulum, ' ?i\iiXQxmg\

1041. aliquem, ' some one man '.

1042. inde = ab eo, ' from him '.

1045. tempore eodem=tamen and goes with putentur, not with
facere', comp. 11. 756, 765, where the construction is exactly the
same, being asyndetic, i.e. there is no particle (such as sed) to connect
the two contrasted verbs, posset and putentur.

NOTES. 97

1047. notilies, ' pre-conception ', is a translation, not very accurate,
oi wpb\y]\l/is: see n. to 1. 182.

1049. Comp. 1. 183. sciret: the last syllable can be lengthened
because it is in arsis, i.e. the emphasis falls on it ; in hexameters the
arsis is on the first syllable of each foot; so Virgil ends a line with
gravidws autiimno, and begins one with limina(\\\Q laurusque.

1050. victosqne domare: see n. to 1. 109.

1053. quid sit opus facto, lit. ' in respect of what there is need of
doir^g', i.e. 'what is needful to be done'; opus est usually takes
the abl. of a noun ; but, if the thing needed be an action, the abl. of a
perf. particip. is used. For the a,cc. quid, see n. to quodforet usus 1. 844.

neque enim : see n. to 1. 315.

1054. amplius, ' continually '. aures is governed by obtundere,
sonitus hy ferrent.

1056. tantoperest: see n. to I. -29.

1057. vigeret is subj., because ciii=quippe cui.

1059. cum, ' since '. deniqtte may here be translated ' even '.

106 1. est, sc. eis. glisciint, 'are rife'; con\T^. 'iu. ^So iurgia glis-
«/«/, Plaut. Capt. 5C)S gtiscit ra/iies.

1062. qtiippe etenim: see n. to I. 126.

1063. magna...mollia: see n. to 1. 13. Molossum: gen. plur. :
the Molossi were a tribe in Epirus who possessed a very famous breed
of large dogs.

1064. ricta, ' open mouths ' ; rictiis, -ils is the common form of
the word. fremunt, ' growl '.

1065. rabie restricta, 'drawnback in rage'; comp. Plaut. Capt. 485
«I? canem quidem inritatam voluit quisquafn imitarier,
saltem, si non arriderent, dentes ut restritigeretit .

1066. et, 'than', is for atque or ac after alio; ac cu?n would not
sound well. iam, 'actually', qualifies latrant. omnia, 'all the place '.

1068. pedibus goes with iactant.

1069. suspensis, lit. 'carefully balanced ', i.e. gentle; comp. S2is-
pen^o pede, ' on tiptoe '. imitantur haustus, ' they pretend to bite ' ;
teneros is part of the predicate, and may be transl. by an adv.

1070. adulant=(yalvov<7L.

107 1. et is used after alio as in I. 1066, ' other than*.

1072. A graphic description. plorantes is nom. jjlur.

1074. iuvencus is used as an adjective.

1075. pinnigeri...amoris: comp.l. 737 Vencris praenunlius pennatus

98 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1077. et: see n. to'l. 1066. sic, 'casually'; ourwffi is similarly
used : the sic of 1. 970 is rather difFerent. alias is the adverb.

1078. Comp. 1. 801, and see nn. there.

1080. salsum is used as a noun; comp. tranquilhim, 1. 12.
victum vitamque : see n. to 1. 804.

1081. It seems very probable that a line is lost after voces\ ' they
utter different cries at different times ' is a sentence complete in itself,
which cannot be properly connected with the following line. The lost
line may have begun with et qicom, (which would account for its disap-
pearance), and have described some peaceful cry of sea-birds : e.g. et
quom progeniem parvam nidosque revisunt.

1083. partiniy 'some birds'; see n. to I. 840. tempestatibus. ' the
weather'. una: adv.

1087. semus, 'feelings'.

1088. tamen is out of place, as it really goes with emittere; 6ij.us is
sometimes similarly placed, e.g. Aesch. Theb. 699 ireldov ywai^iv
Kaiwep oi ffT€fryo)v S/Hcus.

1091 — 1 104. Men may have got fire first from the lightning or from
the rubbing of trees against one atiother ; they learned to cook their
food by observifig the effect of the sun^s heat upon things growing in
the fields.

It is evident that this paragraph and the two which follow are
subsequent additions of the poet : they do not fit in properly here and
are inconsistent with what goes before and comes after ; see n. to

1. lOII.

1091. in his rebus, 'herein'; so 1. 247. neforte 7-equiras: see n.
to 1. 114.

1092. ignetn : see n. to 1. loii.

1093. inde = ab eo, i.e. afulmine.

I095' fulgere: see n. to scatit, 1. 40. caeli plaga must be dis-
tinguished from ponti plaga, 1. 481.

1096. ei...tatnen, ' and all the same ', i.e. if we leave the lightning
out of account, there is another explanation to our hand ; et tamen is
thus used, 11. 213, 768, 1125, 11 77. cum: conjunction.

1097. aestuat, ' is tossed'.

iioo. tnutua is used as an adv., like acerba, 1. 33 ; Virgil (Aen. vii
66) \\%&% per tnufua. dum, 'as', is causal, as often with pres. ind.
1 101 • utruvique, i.e. either lightning or the friction of trees.

NOTES. 99

1102. inde, ' next'.

11 03. Supply mortales as object to docuit, and again as subject
to videbant.

II 05 — IT35. Di^y by day men acquired civilisation by the teaching of
the most intelligent among them. Kings built cities attd divided
property. At Jirst beauty and strength were highly regarded, but
these had soon to give ivay to wealth, though the philosopher despises
riches. Men struggled for honour and wealth and often came to
ruin in the struggle ; let them continue along that dangerous path,
as they will not judge things for themselves but are content to accept
the estimate ofothers.

The finest poetry in the book, perhaps in the poem, is contained in
this paragraph and the three following.

1105. hi is the antecedent of qui in 1. 1 107. victmn vitamque : see
n. to 1. 804.

1106. rebii is abl., the Latin idiom being, to change one thing
with another; the abl. is instrumental. benigni may be translated by an
adv.

1 107. corde vigebant, ' were of vigorous understanding ' ; cor is
commonly the seat of intellect rather than of affection ; see 1. 882.

1109. praesidium may be 'a place to rule in', the original mean-
ing {rom praesidere ; perfugium, 'a place to take refuge in'.

1 1 1 1 . profacie cuiusque=cuique pro facie ; facies, ' beauty '.

II 13. res, 'wealth'. inventast, 'was devised'; repertum, 'was
discovered ', viz. in the earth.

11 15. sectam sequuntur, ' follow in the train'.

11 16. creti : see n. to 1. 6.

11 17. quod is the conjunction; see n. to I. 134.

11 18. vivere parce is the subject of the sentence ; the verb sunt is
plur. by attraction due to the plur. predicate divitiae.

11 19. neque enim: see n. to 1. 315. /arz'z is used as a noun ; 'for
never is there lack of a little'; i.e. you can always get a little, if you
are content with that.

1120. claros voluerunt se : comp. Hor. Sat. i i 84 non uxor salvum
ie vult. We use this constr. more with a particip. than an adj. : ' I wish
myself dead ', but ' I wish to be famous '.

11 22. opulenti, ' by their wealth '.

1123. succedere, ' to mount up'; in a different sense, 1. 281^.

loo LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

11 24. iter viai: comp. cursus viain, 1. 7x4.

11 25. et tamen, 'and after all ', i.e. even if they reach it ; see n. to
1. 1096.

deicit ictos : see n. to 1. 109.

11 26. This invidia bears sorae resemblance to the Nemesis, or
envy of the gods, in the old mythology which Lucr. utterly discards ;
but see n. to 1. 1233.

Tartara taetra, ' noisome Tartarus ' ; the infemal regions are men-
tioned to suggest the distance and disastrous nature of the fall.
X127. vaporant, 'are blasted'; the verb is usually active.

1128. quae and cumque make up a single word.

11 29. iam emphasises vmlto ; so ■f\ht) is used with adjectives.

11 30. regere imperio res : comp. Virg. Aen. vi 851 tu regere
imperio populos, Romatie, mernento.

1131. siiie . . .sttdent : sine is pres. imperat. of sin/re : comp. Plaut.
Mil. Glor. 54 sim viverent, ' I spared their lives '. sanguine sudent :
so in French, suer sang et eau, ' to exert oneself excessively '.

1 133. If men did not follow one another like sheep, they would see
that the objects they pursue are not worth having. sapiunt, 'men get
their knowledge '.

11 34. Comp. Hor. Ep. i 16 19 vereor ne cui de te plus quam tibi
credas.

1135. Ambition is no new thing, says Lucretius.

1136 — 1160. Thiis ki7igs ivere slain, and anarchy prevailed until
magistrates were appointed and codes of law drazon up. Men
submitted more readily to the restraints of law, because the former
system of unlimited revenge gave birth to feiids which poisoned all
the peace and happiness of life.

11 36. Kings were slain because their greatness attracted the stroke
of envy as has just been said. Perhaps Lucr. is tliinking of the expul-
sion of kings from Rome, and below (II. 1143, 1144) of the consuls and
decemvirs.

1137. Comp. Shirley's Ode :

Sceptre and crown must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

1138. insigne, i.e. the crown ; used as a noun, as in 1. 700.
critentum is part of the predicate, ' in blood '.

NOTES. Toi

1139. ^^«o^m, ' prerogative '.

1140. metutum : nom. sing. neut. of the rare participle oi metuo.

1141. 'So things were brought to uttermost degradation and
disorder'. res, 'the state of things'; so aurd is used by Thucydides.
redibat is a part of the idiom and does not mean * were brought back ' ;
comp. revocatur, 1. 255, and iii 910 ad somniim si res redit atque
quietem.

turbae, 'disturbance', is common in Plautus.

1143. partim = nonnulli ; see n. to 1. 840.

1144. fo«5/iVz/«-tf is not infinitive. vellent: final subj.

1145. defessum colere is a rare constr. for de/essum colendo.

1147. arta, 'stringent'; the opposite of artus is laxus, 'roomy',
'large', 'indulgent'.

1 148. ex ira, ' from rage '.

1150. colereaevom = vivere,3.s\n\. 1145.

1151. inde=ab eo, i.e. from excessive revenge. praemia, 'prizes',
'valuable things', not 'rewards' ; see 11. 5, 1450.

1152. quemque, i.e. all who commit violence and wrong.

1153. unde = a quo. Comp. Hesiod Op. 265 oX aiiTip KaKk revxei
avTfip dWii) KaKk revx^^v, perhaps the earliest classical equivalent of our
proverb that honesty is the best policy.

1154. degere, sc. eum.

1156. divom geniis : yet Epicurus and consequently Lucr. taught
that the gods take no notice of the good or evil actions of men ; see
Introduct. p. xxv.

1157. perpetuo goes with fore clam ; id is 'his guilt'; clam would
be occultum in prose ; comp. Cic. De Fin. i 50 quamvis occulte
fecerit, numquam tamen id confdet stmper occultum fore.

1158. quippe ubi, 'since'; quia, qtiod, cum, and quando are often
preceded thus by quippe without its seeming to afifect the sense.

1159. protraxe: con\.\z.ct&^ Ixom protraxisse.

11 60. in medium dedisse, ' to have published abroad'.

ii6i — II93' It is easy to account for that fear of the gods ivhich has
covered the earth ivith tetnples and rituals. Men satv, zvhen awake
and still more in sleep, beings ofwonderful size, beauty, and strength.
As these were ever present, and seemed exempt from fear of death,
men attribuied to them immortality and perfect happiness, and
made them to dwell in the sky, not being able oiherwise to accotmi

\J

I02 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

for the order of the seasons and thi other wonders they beheld in tlu
heavens.

ii6r. detim : gen. plur. magnas gentes : see n. to 1. 20.

1162. perviilgarit : the indirect question depends on rationem
reddere, 1. 1168.

11 63. soUemnia sacra, 'fixed ceremonies'; this is the original
meaning of sollemnis which is connected with annus ; ' solemn ' being a
secondary meaning.

11 64. sacra, but sdcra above ; so iv 1259 liquidis et liquida crassis.
rebu\ ' occasions '.

1165. unde=a qua catisa; see 1. 1161.

1166. toto orbi, ' over all the earth'; so aethere toto, 1. 398.

1167. cogit, sc. mortales. celebrare, 'to throng them'; see n. to
1. 1381.

1168. non ita difficile, 'not very difiicult'; so non ita pridem,
'rather lately'. This line may be taken first in translating the sentence.

1169. quippe etenim : see n. to 1. 126.
divnm goes W\\ii.facies below.
mortalia saecla : see n. to 1. 791.

11 70. animo vigilante, ' with waking mind', i.e. when awake.
Lucr. seems to be inconsistent here : for he said before (1. 148) that the
nature of the gods was too fine and impalpable for our senses to
perceive it. Comp. also vi 68 — 78.

11 71. magis, sc. videbant.

II 73. For the idea that the gods ought to utter lofty words suitable
to their beauty and power, comp. the defence Aeschylus is supposed to
make for his long words, Aristoph. Frogs 1060

KoXXws ilKos Toiis iq/ii9^ovt ToTs p-qjxaai. fjiei^oa-i xp^c^at,
Kal yap toTs l/j,aTlois rmwv xpwjrai iroXi/ aeiivoTipotfft».

1175. dabant, sc. deis homines.

11 76. There was no time when these splendid visions ceased to
appear ; consequently men believed that the beings seen were im-
mortal.

1177. et tamen, *and without that'; i.e. even if the visions had
ceased to appear. omnino, 'on general grounds', repeats the same
idea. viribus auctos: see n. to ignibus aucta, 1. 723.

11 78. convinci=vinci; so Shakespeare, Macbeth l 7 64 'his cham-
berlains wiil I with wine and wassail so convince ', i.c. overcome.

NOTES. ro3

11 79. fortiinis, ' in happiness', the usual meaning of the phir. in
Lucr. ; comp. i 106; in Cicero_/^r^««rt^ often = ' wealth'.

11 80. vexaret is the subj. of a reported reason ; comp. Cic. Off. ii
22 laudat Panaetius Africamcm qiiod tam abstincns fuerit.

1181. multa ct mira, TroXXd koX 6av/j.a<TTd. videbant efficcrc, ' men
saw the gods do '.

1 182. ipsos is rather strangely used to contrast the easy performance
of the gods vvith the difficuhy of the tasks. inde = ab efficicndo. Com-
pare the address to lacchus, Aristoph. Frogs 400 hd^ov ws avexj ir6vov
ttoXXtjj' 656»' irepaivecs.

1183. cae/i rationes, ' the system of heaven'; in a rather different
sense, 1. 196.

1186. perfiigium sibi habebant, 'they had recourse to', 'they took
refuge in ' ; perfugium is acc. in apposition with tradere and facere,
which are both used as nouns and governed by habebant.

1188. deum: gen. plur. templa, 'realms', not 'temples'; see
nn. to 11. 103, 948. Epicurus (see n. to I. 147) taught that the gods did
not live in the heavens but in spaces betvveen worlds, /i€raA.-6(T/xta, whicli
Cicero translates by intcrrmtndia.

1 1 89. videtur, ' is seen '.

1190. severa, 'austere', denoting the purity and coldness of the
starlight ; Keats speaks of ' the earnest stars '. The whole line is
quoted by Bentley (Phalaris ix) as an example of expression at once
simple and sublime.

1191. yacw, ' meteors'.

1193. fremitus, 'growhngs', viz. of thunder ; comY>. frcimtnt, of
dogs, 1. 1064.

murmura minarum, 'threatening rumblings'; the gen. serves as
an epithet; for examples see 11. 369, 764. It is akin to the gen. of
definition, for which see 1. 909.

1194 — 1240. Men have made themselves miserable by i/nagining that
the gods rule in heaven and are capable of anger. True piety con-
sists not in superstitious rites btit rather in a mind at peace. It is
true that when we behold the wonders of the sky, we begin to doubt
whether they may not be due to the power of the gods; and the
dreadful thunder causes all men and especially the sinner to tremble
forfear of punishment. So evcry caplain prays the gods to deliver
him from ihe perils of the sea, and oftcn his praycr is unavailing.

I04 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

Tke perils to which grmtness is subject, and destructive earthquakes
— all thcse things make it natural that nten should think little of
their own power and magnify that ofthegods.

1194. genus is probably accus. ; comp. ii 14 0 miseras hominum
mentes, 0 pectora caeca!

1195. adiunxit, 'gavealso'; com'^. \\ (^o^ adiiinxere feras.

1197. minores nostri, 'our posterity', just as maiorcs nostri = 'our
ancestors'.

IT98. velattim: the Romans prayed with the head covered, the
Greeks with it bare. videri is passive.

1199. vertier ad lapidem, 'to tum towards a stone', a satirical
description of the way in which Romans approached the image of agod:
after praying they turned to the right, so as to front the image, and then
prostrated themselves ; comp. Plautus, Curcul. 69 A. quo me vertam
nescio. B. si deos salutas, dextrovorsum cetiseo; Plutarch, Camill. 5
Kadairep iarl "PwfjLalois ^dos iwev^aixivoLS Kal ■jrpocrKvtnfiffaaiv iirl 5e^id.
i^e\lTTeiv. Plutarch makes the prostration come before the turn.

lapidem seems a contemptuous word for a statue; or it may refer to
the termini (boundary-stones) which were worshipped by the Romans.

1202. votis neciere vota, 'to link vow on to vow'; it is probable
that nectere is not metaphorical, vota being = votivas tabellas.

1203. mage is a weakened form of inagis ; see n. \.o potis, 1. i.

1205. templa: see n. to 1. 103, and comp. Aesch. Pers. 367 rifievoi
aldipos. The order is: et aethcrafixum stiper micantibus stellis. Lucr.
seems here to take the view that the sky does not revolve.

1206. vtnit in mentem viarum: this impers. constr. foUowed by
the gen. is found in Cicero, e.g. De Fin. v 2 venit mihi in vientem
Platonis, 'I think of Plato'; this gen. may be compared with that after
reminiscor and obliviscor.

1207. oppressa: acc. plur. neut.

1208. captit erigere: so ovaKVTZTeiv is often used metaphorically.

1209. «(f^MO^ depends on cura which = Wif/«j.

nobis: the ethical dat.; see 11. 260, 294, 805; 'that we may haply
find there is'.

12 10. verset: consec. subj ., ^?/<7^ being = /(z//.f «/.

12 1 1. rationis egestas, ' the difficulty of explaining'.

12 12. ecquaenam: the indirect question depends on rationis.

12 13. quoad: see n. to 1. 1033.

1214. solliciti ^%xt.&%Vi'\\}[\ motus. laborein, 'strain'.

NOTES. 105

12 15. scUute, 'existence'5 so salvo Marone, ^' \v\\\\q Virgil lived'.
1217 is identical with 1. 379.

1218. cui is interrogative.

1219. contrahitur, 'shrink into itself; just the opposite is anitmis
diffunditur, ' expands vvith joy'.

correpunt, ' huddle up ' ; like contrahiiur, but stronger. Comp.
Seneca Nat. Quaest. vi 2 6 quid dementius quam ad tonitrua succidere et
sub terram correpere fulmhtiun tnetu ?

1221. murmura, viz. of thunder.

1223. corripitint membra, 'shrink into themselves'; comp. contra-
hitur, correpunt above.

1225. poenarum solvendi: we should expect either the gerund,
poenas solvendi, or the gerundive, poenarum solvendarum; but some-
times, as here, the gen. of the gerund is foUowed by a noun in the gen.,
apparently to avoid such cumbrous phrases as agrortim condonando-
rum; comp. Plaut. Capt. 852 nominandi istorutn copia, ibid. 1008 lucis
tuendi copiam, grave is an epithet ; sit adultum (see n. to 1. 90) is
Ihe verb; comp. 1. 1416.

1227. induperatorcm: see n. to 1. 102.

1228. pariter should be taken before cum.

1229. divum pacetn, ' the favour of the gods'; comp. ventorum
paces below, ' propitious winds '.

1230. anitnas: see n. to 1. 236. So Jason, when starting on the
quest of the golden fleece, Tirfva. koX uKVTrSpovi kvij.6.t<x}v piwas av€tj.wv t
iKdXei, vvKTas re /cai irdvTov KeXeidovs a/xaTd t' eCippova Kal <piKlav v6ffToio
/xolpav (Pind. Pyth. iv 194) ; and the Athenians, when starting against
Syracuse, ei/x^^ '''^s vofu^oixiva% irpb ttjs dvay^a^ris iiroiovvTo (Thuc.
vi 32). And in the last case the prayers were unheard.

1232. nilo, abl. of amount of difference, goes with ttiitms.

vada leti, ' the shoals of death' ; the phrase is hardly a metaphor in
the sense that ianua leti (I. 373) is.

1233. The ' hidden power' is the secret working of nature, theyi??--
tuna of 1. 107, the invidia of I. 1126.

1234. The rods and axes were the insignia of the highest ofifices
and are therefore used as= 'greatness'.

1235. ludibrio,\\\.. ' for a mockery ' ; predicative dat.

1237. dubiaeque : que is used in the sense of ve; ve was used for que,
1. 71 ; dubiae may be transl. by an adv. Comp. Seneca Nat. Quaest. vi
I 2 oppidi pars ruit dubieque stant etiam quae relicta sunt. He is

io6 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

speaking of the eruption and earthquake which destroyed Pomi)eii and
Herculaneum in 79 A.D.

tninantnr, sc. se casttras esse.

1238. niortalia saccla = homines; sec n. to 1. 791.

1239. relinqtiunt, 'admit'.

1240. giibernent: consec. snh]., qiiaehemg = tales iil.

1241 — 1280. Metals werefirst discovered when theearth was thoroughiy
heated by forest fires, which may have bcen kindled by lightning or
by men for various purposes. The heat melted the metals in tke
ground; and when these had cooled, their glitter attracted attention,
and the shapes they had assumed suggested to men that they might
smclt metals for their 07vn purposes. Gold aiid silver did not prove
so workahle as coppcr and so were neglectcd for it. yust the opposite
is true now. Everything has its day.

1241. qiiod stipercst: see n. to 1. 64.

1242. argenti pondus, 'heavy silver'; so terrae pondus, 1. 495.
potestas, ' the substance '.

1244. fulmine: the abl. may be either causal or absohite.

1246. formidinis ergo, 'for the sake of (i.e. to inspire) terror'; an
archaic use of ergo, found once in Virgil, Aen. vi 670.

1248. pandere, ' to clear', ^Ckovv, \f/i\rj yrj, arable land, is opposed
to veipvTev/xifT), land for olives and vines.

pascua, ' fit for pasture ', is predicate.

1250. venarier {=venari) is used as a noun and is the subj. to
ortiim est.

1251. saepire, sc. ortum est.

1252. quidquid id est: see n. to 1. 577.
1255. venis: abl. of place vvhence.

1257. cum videbant=8iror€ tSoL€v; but later writers imitate Greek
usage in these general conditions in past tinie, as Mart. ii 69 4 cum
cenaret ( = oiroTe denrvolT]), erat tristior ille, domi.

1259. lepore, 'prettiness'.

1260. The order is: et videbant {ea)formata esse figtird simili atqiie
vestigia lacu7iarum (quae) cuique {metallo) fiierant.

1261. lit. 'as the outHnes of the hollows had been to each ', i.e. ' to
the outline of the hollow in which each (lump) had been ' ; similis is
followed by atqtie, just as 01x010% by /cat.

NOTES. 107

1262. penetrahat eos, 'it struck them'; a rare use of the word.
liqiiefacta...decurrere: see n. to 1. 109.

1264. prorsum, 'absolutely', qualifies quatnvis in acuta.
quamvis in acuta : the whole phrase is : in fastigia tam acuta quam

vis. The plur. of quamvis is sometimes used, and also the plur. of other
tenses, e.g. in speeches to a jury, quam voletis nmltos producatn testes.

1265. tnucronum fastigia, ' tapering points '.

procudendo, 'by hammering out '; there is a change of subject, as it
is not the metals but men that do the hammering. Comp. 1. 1369, and
{312 anulus in digito subter tenuatur habendo, i.e., 'by our wearing '.
In these constructions the gerund is not passive, as is sometimes said ;
see n. to novando, 1. 194.

1 266. darent, sc. hae res, the metals. posscnt, sc. ipsi.

1267. levia is predicate.

1268. pertundere : this compound takes the sense of the preposition
rather than of the original verb ; pcrtusum vas, ' a jar with a hole in it ' ;
pertusa laena, 'a coat in holes'. perque forare \ a case of tmesis.

1269. argento: abl. of instrument.

1270. primum goes vfi\.h. parabant above. violentis, 'masterful';
the epithet hints at the uses to be made of copper.

1271. potestas, sc. argenti et auri.

1272. pariter, i.e. as well as copper.

1275. icLcet, 'is neglected', a common sense of the word; iacere is
opposed to valere, Cic. Off. iii 46.

successit: see n. to 1. 11 23.

1276. volvenda : see n. to 1. 514. tempora rerum, ' the seasons of
things '.

1278. Comp. 11. 832, 833.

1281 — 1307. The first weapons used were tke hands, nails, and teeth,
sticks, stones, and fire. These gave place to copper which was used
for all purposes of war and peace until copper in turn gave place to
iron. Next men learnt to moicnt horses in warfare and then to
yoke two and four horses in a chariot. Lastly the Carthaginians
taught elephants to take part in battle. Thus gradually the means
of fighting have been perfected.

1281. ferri natura, ' the substance which is iron ', is a mere
periphrasis ioxferrum ; see n. to 1. 59.

1284. silvarmn fragmina is in apposition with raiiii.

io8 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1285. postquam priunim = k-KA rdxi-ffTa; quovt extemplo is the
usual phrase in Plautus. cognita is neuter, according to rulc, after the
two subjccts flamvia atque ignes, of which one is masculine and one
feminine, both referring to things not persons.

1287. prior : adj. for adv.

J288. quo, like Scra), often = ' because ', when the sentence contains a
comparative. /aa/w, ' easy to work '. natura: nom.

1290. /«iJtf^a«/, 'they stirred up'. z/aj/a, 'gaping'.
serebant, lit. ' they sowed', i.e. 'dealt around'.

1291. ollis: archaic for illis.

1294. species, elSos, ' the fashion '• est belongs to versa ; see n. to
1. 90.

1296. Those who first used iron swordshad a great advantage over
the rest ; but when everybody used them, everybody had an equal
chance.

1297. armatum conscendcre, 'for a man with a sword to mount';
the inf. is used as a noun (and so moderarier, vigere, and temptarehelovi),
and is subject \.o prius est, ' is an earlier invention '.

1298. vigere, i.e. to use the sword, the left hand being taken up by
holding the bridle.

1300. bis binos, sc. equos; so bis bina qiiot sunt, 'how much is
twice two?'

1302. boves Lttcas, 'Lucan kine', i.e. elephants, which the Romans
called by this name, because the first elephants they saw were employed
by King Pyrrhus in Lucania when he brought an army to conquer
Italy, 281 B.c.

turrito = turrigero; so auritus, 'furnished with ears '.
taetras, ' hideous '.

1303. anguimanus is acc. plur. fem., the compounds of manus
being declined like t?ianus ; comp. Cic. De Nat. De. ii 122 manus etiam
data elephanto est. An elephant's 'hand' sounds strange ; but 'trunk'
is really stranger, being a mere corruption of 'trump'; the French
word is trompe.

Poeni, ' the Carthaginians '.

1305. alid=aliud; aliud ex «//<? would not scan ; so Lucr. uses the
archaic form. Catullus {^(> 28) has alis for alius.

1306. esset: final subj., ^«(7(/being = M/ /</.

1308 — 1349' Some tried to use luild animals in ivar; but these attacked
their own side just as much as the cncmy, as cveti elcphatits sotne-

NOTES. 109

tinies do. So only the desperate had recourse to siich dangerous
expedients.

1308. munere belli, ' the service of war'; belli is gen. of definition
like novitatis nomen 1. 909 ; comp. f)?/uia OavaTOv.

1 309. sunt belongs to experti ; see n. to 1. 90.

13 10. partim = nonmd/i; see n. to 1. 840.

1312. modtrarier his: here vtoderari gp\Qms the dat., but, 1. 1298,
the acc. ; both constructions are common.
possent: final subj.

13 14. nullo discrimine, i.e. making no distinction between friend
and foe.

1315. crisiae are not the lions' manes but some head-gear with
which they were supplied to make them appear more formidable.

1316. freniitu, sc. leonum.

perterrita equorum pectora, ' the terror of the horses excited by...'.

131 7. convertere, sc. equos.

13 19. adversum, ivavTiov, is an adv.

venientibus ora petebant: though English prefers the gen., it is the
idiom of Latin and many other languages to use a dat. of the person
when parts of the body are in question ; thus capiit ei abscisum est is, in
French, on lui trancha la tete.

1320. et nec opinantes, sc. alios', see n. to 1. 777.

1321. deplexae, ' twining round them '; a very rare word.

1322. morsibus, ' savage jaws ' ; just so osculum is used of a mouth
which kisses rather than bites, by Lucr. iv 1081, Mart. xi 91 7.

1324. hauribant \ for the form see n. to 1. 934, for the meaning n.

to 1. 991. subter'. adv., as almost always in Lucr.

1328. For the repetition (epanalepsis is the technical name) see n.
tol. 951.

1329. dabant ruinas: see n. to 1. 347.

1330. transversa exibant, 'by swerving tried to avoid '.
adactus is a noun.

1332. ab nervis succisa, ' with their tendons severed ', i.e. hamstrung,

the regular sense of succtdere. With ab nervis (=a parte nervoriim)

comp. a terrisl. 754. videres, 'one might have seen'; see n. to adportes,

1. 100.

1334. domi domitos: notice the assonance or play on words, a

constant feature in old Latin poetry ; see n. to 1. 392.
1335- i^ rebus agundis, ' in the heat of action '.
D. 10

iio LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1336. The ablatives are causal.

1337. reddncere, 'to T3.\\y' .

1339. boves Lucae\ see n. to 1. 1302.

7nale mactae, ' cruelly mangled ' ; mactae is probably the particip. of
an obsolete verb viacere, and to be distinguished from the particip. of
an obsolete magert, found in the phrase macte virtute, ' well done ! '

1340. fera facta, ' cruel sufferings '.

1341 — 1346 are found in the MSS. but are omitted in this text.
They make no sense here, nor would they anywhere else. They are
clearly a collection of tags from other parts of the poem, interpolated
here by some ignorant copyist.

1347. The sentence would be more symmetrical if it ran thus: sed
id faciendo non tam vincere voluerunt quam dare etc.

1348. gemerent is consec. subj. , quod being —tale quid ut.
ipsique perire : the emphasis falls entirely on the first part of the

verse; for they did not wish to die, but to make the enemy suffer even
at the cost of their own lives. This method of expression is commoner
in Greek, e.g. i^ovXovro SpaaavTis tl TraBuv; comp. Thuc. iii 40 oi ^tj
^vv ■3rpo<pduei Tiva KaKuis iroioivTes iire^ipxovTat Kal 5i6\XwTat, ' attack
and are destroyed ', i.e. attack at the cost of their own lives.

1349. vacabant, ' were without ', governing the abl.; this word is
extremely common, with the dat., in post-Augustan Latin, especially
in two senses, ' to have time for', and 'to devote time to', i.e. to
study; both occur together in Mart. xi i 6 nec viusis vacat, aut suis
vacaret, 'he has no time for poetry; if he had, he would write poetry
of his own '.

1350 — 1360. There ivas no weaving before iron was discovcred, iron
bting necessary to niake the impletuents of weaving. At first weaviug
was done by men until the reproaches of the husbandmcn forccd them
to leave it to womcn.

1350. nexilis vestis would be a garment of skins tied on the
body.

1352. ratione alia, i.e. without iron.

1353. insilia: the meaning is uncertain, and the epithet livia does
not suit ' treadles ' which is given in the lexx. ; perhaps ' heddles ', of
which there were two in the ancient loom to separate the threads of the
warp or vertical yarns.

NOTES. 1 1 1

fusix \\i& fitstis is no part of the tela or loom, but "was used along
with the cohis to make the yarn.

radii and scapi are both connected with the loom : the radius was
used to press together the threads, the scaptis to tie the threads of the
warp to, at the bottora of the loom. It should be remembered that the
ancient loom was vertical, the weaver standing at his work.

1356. solleriius, ' more ingenious '.

1357. vitio: predicative dat.

1358. ut is consecutive, not final.

1359. pariter, i.e. cum agricolis.

1360. diirareut: for a different sense see 1. 57.

1361 — 1378. Nature herself tatight men to sow the fields and to plant
and graft young shoots. One kind of tillage after another ivas tried,
and more land daily brought under cultivation.

1361. specinun, "■ mo^€^\

1 364. pulli is more commonly used of the young of animals ; so in
French, pottietis a chicken, poulain a colt; Lucr. uses pullus for bodi
(ii 927, iii 764).

subter: see n. to 1. 1324.

1365. unde=et ab hoc. libittimst, ' they got a desire '.

1366. defodcre: see n. to 1. 935.

1367. dulcis agelli, ' the plot they loved'; 'sweet' is seldom a
usefiil epithet in EngHsh, except of things that can be smelt, tasted, or
heard.

1368. frtuttis is governed by manstiescere.

1 369. indtdgendo, sc. terrae, ' by their treating the land well ',
5ia rh evepyereiv : there is a change of subject ; see nn. to novando 1.
194, procudendo 1. 1265.

1370. succedere: see n. to 1. 1123.

1373. haberent is final subj.

1374. caerula, yXavK-^, ' grey-green '. ^ >^^k- c c ^'.".'^ '{AJyuJict^
inter is separated from ctirrcre by tmesis ; ^see n. to 1. i^S^. plSga, ' a

strip '.

1377. omnia, ' all the ground'. intersita ornant: see n. to L
109. omant, sc. homincs.

1378. arbustis, ' plantations ' ; see n. to 1. 671.
circttm is an ad\erb.

10 — 3

112 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1379 — 1435. The earliest tniisic ivas an attempt to whistle in imitation
ofbirds. Then the sotmd of the wind blowing through reeds suggest-
ed to men to make the pipe which you may hear shepherds play on tht
hills. This mtisic, together with dancing and rustic fcstivities, gave
viuch pleasure when it was new, and served to solace such as could
not sleep, though it would tiot give satisfaction now. The old sim-
plicity of life soon passed away; skins and acorns and beds of leaves
fell into contempt, thotigh they had once been so prized. We nozv
prize gold and ptirple instead, and poison the happiness of our lives by
ambition and greed.

1379. imitarier ( = imitari) is used as a noun and is the subject to
fuit; see 1. 1297 for similar exaniples.

1381. concelebrare, ' to practise frequently'; I. 1167 celebrare='io
throng ', and so concelebrareis used, i 4. auresque iuvare, ' with pleasure
to the ear' ; the phrase may be compared with ipsique perire, 1. 1348,
as both express a result of the main action, though the result is stated
as if co-ordinate, by what is called parataxis.

1382. zephyri: gen. sing. cava calamorum : see n. to viai cuncta
1. 739. iibila: sibilus makes this irregular plural; see n. to 1. 1397.

1383. agrestes is a noun here.

1385. caiientum, 'of the players ' ; canere is constantly used of
playing as well as of singing.

1386. reperta, (fem. sing.), *met with ', not 'invented'.

1387. otia dia = otia sub divo, ' peaceful places beneath the open
sky'; so, i 22 dias in luminis oras, dias = aetherias ; but, ii 172, dia
voluptas=divina voluptas.

1388. 1389 are identical with 11. 1454, 1455, and are omitted in the
text, having been inserted here in the Mss. by a blunder.

1390. ollis: see n. to 1. 1291.

1391. sunt cordi, ' are dear'; cordi is locative, lit. ' at heart'; a
very common phrase in all periods of Latin, usually with another,
personal, dat. ; Hor. Od. i 17 13 dis pietas mea et musa cordi est.

1392. inter se, 'in groups '.

1393. propter: see n. to I. 31.

1 394. non magnis : comp. non magno 1. 604.
iuttinde habcbant = curabant; see n. to 1. 939.

1395. tempestas, ' the weather '; so 1. 744. ridebat : for ihe indic.
expressing frequency, see n. to 1. 1257.

NOTES. 113

1397. ioca, plur. oi iocus; so loca from locus, sibila from sibilus.

1400. fioribus is abl. of instrument, after plexis, ' plaited with
flowers '.

1401. extra numerum, ' out of step '; the opposite of in numerum.

1402. duriter, 'clumsily'; see n. to uniter, 1. 537. terram pede
pellere: comp. Hor. Od. iii 18 15 gaudet invisam pepulisse fossor ter
pede terram.

1405. hinc = ab hoc, i.e. from music. solacia somni, ' consolations
for the want of sleep ' ; so the watchman on the roof of Agamemnon's
palace sang to himself as xi-wvov avTi/j.o\Trov a/cos (Aesch. Agam. 16, 17).

1406. ducere,fiectere, a.nd percurrere are used as nouns in the nom.
case, in apposition with solacia.

multimodis: see n. to omnimodis, 1. 190.

1407. supera : preposition.

unco labro : comp. Browning's Pied Piper of Hamelin vii ' to blow
the pipe his lips he wrinkled '.

1408. ' and even now watchmen keep the tradition they have
received from them'; unde = a quibus and goes vdth accepta. vigiles
may be the sentinels in a camp or the watchmen in a town ; in imperial
Rome there were 7000 vigiles, their chief duty being to extinguish
fires.

1409. m-if«5 is the adverb. hilo: abl. of amount of difference; the
acc. occurs 1. 358.

1410. interea = tameH ; seen.to l. 83. du/cedini' /ructum, 'enjoy-
ment of delight' ; the phrase occurs before, ii 971.

1412. praesto: adverb.

141 3. inprimis is often written as one word.

1414. illa is acc. plur. neut. ; reperta is nom. sing. fem., agreeing
with res. posterior may be translated by an adverb.

1415. sensus, ' otir feelings '. ad, ' in regard to'.

1416. coepit, sc. esse', comp. Juvenal iii 114 et quando coepii
Graecorum mentio. relicta sunt is the verb ; for the separation of the
words, see n. to I. 90.

1417. strata herbis is a.n epithet of cubi/ia. /rondibus aucta: comp.
ignibus aucta, 1- 723.

14 18. pellis: gen. sing. contempta, ' \nto zontexnpV.

1419. quam = quamvis eam. invid7a...repertam, ' was so envied
formerly when discovered'; invidia is abl. of attendant circumstances.

1420. gessit { = i(i)6pria-€), sc. eaw.

114 LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

1421. et iamen, ' and after all ', i.e. though they had committed
murder to get it ; see n. to 1. 1096. san^uim is causal abl. after dispcr-
iisse.

1422. convertere=converti: see n. to vertcre, 1. 831.

1425. quo, 'and in this '. niagis goes with in nobis, not with quo.

1428. auro signisque is a hendiadys, meaning ' figures embroidered
in gold '. apta is the particip. oi apere; see n. to 1. 537.

1429. dum, 'provided that'. plebeia, sc. vestis. tamen is to be
taken with de/endere; for its position, see n. to 1. 1088.

1432. habendi Jinis, ' the right limit of possession ', i.e. to what
point it is desirable to go on acquiring property.

1433. omnino, ' in general ' ; comp. omnino,\. 11 7~. quoad: see
n. to 1. 1033. Lucr. means that pleasure pursued beyond a certain
point ceases to be pleasant.

1434. »'« altum, ' into the deep sea', d% ir^Xayoi ; comp. the
metaphorical use of ixeriwpo^.

1435. aestus, ' billows '.

1436 — 1439. The motions of the stin and moon iaiight men io observe
the seasons of the year.

1436. vigiles is perhaps a noun as in 1. 1408, ' watchful guardians '.

1437. circum: adverb.

1439. ratione, 'plan'; rem, ' the system '•

I440 — 1447. At length men began to live in walled cities, to divide
up the land, and to sail the sea. States made alliance with one
another ; letiers were invented, and then history began to be written.

1440. iam qualifies the whole sentence, not merely validis.
degebani aevum=viveba7it; comp. colere aevum, 1. 11 50.

1441. divisa colebatur : see n. to 1. 109.

1442. velivolis, ' sail-winged ' ; applied by Virgil to the sea, Aen.
i 224; a good instance of the elaborate art with which Virgil refines on
the simplicity of Lucr.

florebai : a bold metaphor, but less bold than a similar one in Aesch.
Agam. 659 opQfxfv ivdoOv iriXayos Alyatov veKpols.

1444. res gestas, ' the deeds of heroes ', iCKia avhpQiv, such as Achilles
sang in his tent to the lyre (II. ix 189): the history of most nations
begins with such records ; see the Introduction to Macaulay's Lays.

yOTES. 115

1445. elementa, 'the letters of the alphabet'.

1446. prius, i.e. before the invention of writing,

1447. ra/?'^, ' reasoning '. Comp. 11. 324 — 329.

144S — 1457. Thus by degrees practice and cxperience siiggested to men
all useful inventions and afterwards all the fine arts and luxuries
of life. There has been a gradual but steady progress until per-
fection in them all has been reached.

1449. vias, 'roads'; an important part anJ instrument of civilisa-
tion which the Romans thoroughjy understood.

1450. praemia, sc. vitae; see n. to 1. 1151. funditus, ' without
exception ', usually has omnes after it in Lucr. ; but see 11. 497, 1435.

1451. daedala signa polire, ' the shaping of well-wrought statues';
polire is used as a noun in the acc. case. dacdala is used in its passive
signification ; see n. to 1. 234.

1452. usus, 'practice'; comp. Virg. Georg. i 133 «/ varias usus
vitditando extunderet artes,

1453. p^ogredientes, sc. homines, a second acc. after docuit.

1454. tinumquicquid=unumquidque; see n. to 1. 131.

1455. in mediutn, ' in sight of all men'; so 1. 11 60.
luminis oras: see n. to 1. 85.

1456. aiid=a/iud ; see n. to 1. 1305. ex a/io siad ordine are tresited
as co-ordinate adverbs, ' after another and in due order '.

1457. artibus is dat. commodi, but may be translated, ' in the arts'.
venere, sc. artes.

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

a parz'is, 977

a/> ' in consequence of , 358

ab ' on the side of ', 754

abl. in -t, 74

abl. of amount of difference, 1232

adeo after negative, 574

adverb for adj., 33

aegocerotis, 615

aer){aether, 85

alid=^aliud, 1305

alituum, 801

aliunde alicunde, 522

a/i«j-a/^«e 'other than', 1066

alliteration, 12, 217,950, 957,989,

993
almus, 230
alter uter, 589
ambiguity, 297, 1414, 1416
anacoluthon, 383, 447, 460
androgynutn, 839
anguintanus , 1303
anima ' the soul ', 59
aniinal, 823
animantes, 823
animi locative, 97
animi tiatura — animits, 59
animus ' the mind', 59
a^/^ quam with indic, 390
antistare, 22

aptus, twomeanings of, 537, 808
arbusta for arbores, 671
artus)(laxus, 1147
assonance, 392, 1334
astrologi){Chaldaei, 1^1
asyndeton, 1045

Atlas, 35

aucta ignibus, 723

autumnus, 34

Bagehot'sPhysicsandPolitics,925,

959
balbus, 1022
barbarus, 36
bene pleno, 708
^^«^ f/z/;' ' happiness', 18
&j ^/«/, 1300
iJiTz^^j Lucae, 1302
bruma = brevima, 746

cadere ' to vanish ', 328

candor, 282

cemere=decernere, 782

Chaldaei, 727

Chimaera, 905

f w for f /d-re", 2 1 r

concelebrare, 1381

concord, rule of, 1285

condcnsa, 486

f(?w/ ttmbras, 764

convcnire, constr. of, 898

convertere neuter, 1422

f(7r ' intelligence ', 1 107

cordi esse, 1 39 1

corpora materiai ' atoms ', 355

corrcpunt, 12 19

corripere, 247

cretus, 6

<-r7'5/atf of lions, 13 15

fz/w superfluous, 353

f/cra corporis, 939

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

117

daedalus, two meanings of, 234

dare, of doctors, loio

dare ruinam, sonitum etc, 347

dat. after diversus, 647

dat., eihical, ■260

dat. of tlie person, 1319

dat., predicative, 539

rtV ' according to', 154

de 'after', 651

Democritus, 622

demonstr. pron. for relat., 898

denique ' besides', 26

deplexae, 1322

deturbare, 401

dignum pro, i

diluvies, 255

Diomedes, 31

dius, meanings of, 1387

divinitus, 198

dogs, fidelity of, 864

doniqtie, 708

double epitliets, 13

double subj., 421

duae partes ' two thirds ', 204

dubitare, constr. of, 249

dulcis, 1367

dttm, uses of, 700

durare ' to harden ', 1360

durare 'toremain', 57

eclipses of moon, 764
-ei, quantity of, 284
eiemenia 'letteis', 1445
elephants, 1302
enclitic est, 43
enim = iirei, 13
epanalepsis, 299
Epicurus, 4, 336
equinoxes, 690
ergo ' for the sake of ', 1246
et tamen, 1096
ethical dat., 260
etiam atque etiam, 821
etiam qttoque, 153
Euhius Euhan, 743
exordia, 331

Favonius, 739

fear of eternal night, 973

fevers in autunin, 220

fire, discbvery of, loii

fire is food of stars, 525
fiorebat puppibus, 1442
fluere ' to ebb ', 280
fortunae ' happiness ', 1 1 79
fossae, 482
fragor, 109
fraus, 1005
fundatum aevo, 161
funditus, 1450
fungi){facere, 358

gen. as epithet, 369, 1193

gen., attributive, 533

gen. in -ai, 69

gen. of definition, 909

gen., partitive, 918

gerund, gen. of, with gen. of noun,

1225
gerund used actively, 43
gerund used as abl. of inf., 194,

1265, 1369
gerundive used as particip., 514
Geryon, 28
Gigantes, 117
gignundis, 181
gliscunt, 1061

gods of Epicurus, 1156, 1170, 1188
'golden couplets', 802
Greek adjectives, 334
Greek plural, 35

haec rerum summa, 194

Harpies, 28

haustj-a 'scoops', 516

haustus ' torn ', 991

hendiadys, 335, 726, 1428

Hercules, 22

Hesperides, 32

heteroclitic plurals, 1397

hiatus, 7, 74

hic = tum, 432

hilum, 358

hoc ' thcrefore ', 807

humi locative, 223

hypermetric line, 849

hysteron proteron, 626

ii8

LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

iacio, compounds of, 567

Ida, 663

ille superfluous, 658

immortalibu\ 53

impes, 504

impetus, 200

inane ' void ', 357

inconsistency of Lucr., 402, 523

inde loci, 443

indic. expressing frequency, 1257,

1395
indic. in oratio obliqua, 630
induperator, 102
infans ' speechless ', 223
infin., pres. for fut., 387
infin., used as noun, 979, 1297
inmissis habenis, 787
insigne, 700, 1138
insilia, 1353

insinuare , constr. of, 44, 73
intetnpesta tiocte, 986
interea = tamen, 83, 394
intermundia, 14^
interstingui, 76 1
interutrasque adv., 472, 839
intus)(intro, 354
invidia, 1 126
irregular adverbs, 1402
irregular condition, 212, 277
ita ' for', 39
itere, 653

lacuna suspected, 108 1
laetus, 921

language, origin of, 1028
liniitative use of ita ut, 476
liquidus, 281
locative of price, 545
long syllables in arsis, 1049
longiter, 133
luminis orae, 85
lychini-=\i)~)0'°'-> 295

7nactae ' mangled ', 1339

manus elephanti, \ 303

masque of the seasons, 737

Matuta, 656

metac, 617, 6yo

metaphors, 12, 77, 89,282,778,8^0

metutum, 1 140
milia, not mUlia, 999
moenia t?iundi, 454
Molossi, 1063
mortalia saccla, 791
muhitude of worlds, 430
tnnndus includes sky and stars, 477
mutua adv., iioo

nativus)(aeternus, 60

natura, 77, 107

natttra rerum, i^

ne rearis final clause, i 14

nec uter, 839

neque enim, 315

nimio, 564

nodus anni, 688

non iam — oiiKiri, 1016

notare ' to blame ',121

notities=-n-p6\-r]\l/is, 182, 1047

ollis, 382

omne=Tb ■irav, 527

omne genus adv., 428

omnimodis, 190

omnino, 1433

opus est, constr. of, 1053

Orcus, 996

order of words, 90, 177, 929

origins of literature, 1444

Ovid quotes Lucr., 95

paragraphs misplaced, iio, 101 1,

1091
parataxis, 1348, 1381
partim = nonnulli, 840
pectus, I

pcnnipotentes, 789
percipere, 605

perf. oi fugio zx^di compounds. 150
fertundere, meaning of, 1268
/tf/cr^intrans., 1035
Phaethon, 397
piger, 746

plagae o{ 2Xo'a\%, 188
pleonasm, 126, 153, 245, 285, 494,

517, 561, 604, 751, 1002.
polus 'axis', 511
pondus terrae, 495

INDEX TO THE NOTES.

119

Pontos, 507
potis indeclin., i
praemia, 5, 1151
praesidium, meaning of, 1 109
prayers of sailors, 1230
privtordia 'atoms', 184
principia 'atoms', 184
privaHis = expers, ^i^j
privus ■= singulus , 274
procudere, 850
propter^ near ',31
pullus, 1364

qtiaitta quanta, 584
quantity, difference of, 11 63
qui abl. , 233
quicquid=quidque, 131
quietem, 983
quippe etenim, 126
quippe tibi, 11 58
quod genus adv., 47S
quod si, 1 34
quod superest, 64

radiatus, 700
radii, 1353
ratio, 9

repe7is){repe7is, 400
res gestae, 1444
^-f j redibat, 1 1 4 1
retexens, 267
revictae, 409
revocalur, 255
revolution of the sky, 5 10
ritual of the Romans, 11 99
roses in spring, 740
ruere trans., 1325

scuclum, 339

scapi, 1353

scatere, 40

scibat for sciebat, 934

scilicet, formation of, 875

sciret, 1049

Scylla, 892

separation of ^j'/ and particip., 90

sequor=pergo, 528

sevcra signa, 1190

shape of the earth, 536

si forte=fortasse, 720

«' iam = il 8.pa, 195

sibila, 1382

w ' casually ', 1077

j?V ' straight off ', 441

signifer orbis, 691

jz7/(r^ sternere, 313

silvestris ' savage ', 970

simulacra, 275

size of the sun, 564

sollemnis, 1 163

solstices, 617

solstitiu7n){hieinps, 617

sound suited to sense, 508

spatium, 370

species=d5os, 94

species = 6\l/LS, 569

spontaneous generation, 798

stability of the earth, 536

subj. denoting frequency, 63, 681

subj. of reported reason, 1180

subj., pres., 2nd pers. , 100

subtexunt, 466

succedere, 286, 1123

succidere, 1332

succurrere, 765

sumtna stim?narum, 194, 361

Summanus, 521

j«o pronounced swo, 420

superat perf., not pres., 396

survival of the fittest, 876

suspensus, 1069

JWMJ not referring to subject, 404

synizesis, 172

tamen misplaced, 1088
tandem 'afterall', 137
tanto quique, 343
Tartara, 11 26
tempestas ' season', 744
templa 'quarters', 103
tempore eodem = tamen, 1 045
tenuis, 148
teres, 803
iermini, 1199
Theban epic, 326
tmesis, 287
tranquillufn, noun, i ^
transferred epithet, 24

LUCRETIUS. BOOK V.

' trunk ', derivation of, 1 303
iuerg and tuere, 3 1 8
Uirhare neuter, 402

usus est, constr. of, 844, 1053
utor governing acc, 1033

vacare, meanings of, 1349
vapor ' heat ',236
varius, 801
vastus ' waste ',202
ve used for que, 7 1
vegere active, 532
velivolus, 1442
vertere = verti, 831

vertier ad lapidem. 1199
vesci. 72, 857
veterinus, 865
videri passive, 139
viduata, 840
vigiles, 1408
z^iVmj ' salt ', 269
viscus 'flesh', 903
Volturnus, 745

water wheels, 516

Zephyrus, 739
zodiac, 691

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